what happened when mount vesuvius erupted in 79 ad
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 Mount Vesuvius spewed forth a deadly cloud of tephra and gases to a height of 33 kilometres (21Â mi), ejecting molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash at the rate of 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings.[2] Several Roman settlements were obliterated and buried underneath massive pyroclastic surges and ashfall deposits, the best known being Pompeii and Herculaneum.[1][2]