This story was originally published on The Conversation. It appears here under a Creative Commons license. On August 24, in the year 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, shooting over 3 cubic miles of debris up to 20 miles (32.1 kilometers) in the air. As the ash and rock fell to Earth, it buried the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. According to most modern accounts, the story pretty much ends there: Both cities were wiped out, their people frozen in time. It only picks up with the rediscovery of the cities…
