Vesuvius buried Pompeii under a thick layer of pumice and ash in 79 AD. Roughly how deep was the ash deposit on the town when the eruption ended?
Pompeii was buried under roughly 20 feet of pumice and ash by the end of the eruption — enough to bury entire two-story buildings up to their rooftops. Herculaneum, on the western flank of Vesuvius, was buried under much more (about 70 feet of pyroclastic flow material) because the volcano's first major lateral surge went west. The 20-foot depth at Pompeii preserved the town in extraordinary detail and is why the bodies, the wall paintings, and even the loaves of bread in the ovens survived to be excavated.
Read the full facts →Pompeii was a Roman provincial town of approximately 11,000 to 12,000 people on the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. It was buried under approximately 20 feet of volcanic pumice and ash during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in late October 79 AD. The site has been continuously excavated since 1748 and is the most thoroughly documented archaeological site of Roman urban life.
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