Into the Inferno; The Volcano Thread

[sus]

'The A.D. 79 Eruption at Mt. Vesuvius'

https://igppweb.ucsd.edu/~gabi/sio15/lectures/volcanoes/pliny.html

The second letter's pretty incredible, also funny to read him criticising what are effectively conspiracy theorists making up shit about the volcano in the midst of all the chaos.

I also was really struck by Pliny's account when I came across it. The almost Tennyson-Ulysses sailing-into-the-jaw-of-the-unknown in one's old age. I was lucky enough to read it a few weeks before I traveled through Naples, and could map his route out from the opposite cliffs—from the tip of the peninsula, where he started, and into the bay, where he would've landed near Vesuvius.

 

[sus]

Anyone ever seen one up close? I remember reading about those people walking the rim of one and unfortunately being caught when it erupted a while back. There's some incredible footage of a French couple who used to get right up next to the lava flow in Herzog's volcano film.

@tobyshooters have you seen this?