CLEP Western Civ I

Answer: D - In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted and blanketed much of Pompeii (and the neighboring town of Herculaneum), near present-day Naples in the region of Campania, in ash and other volcanic debris. Vesuvius spewed 1.5 million tons of molten rock and pulverized pumice per second, some of which shot more than 20 miles up from the eruption site. The thermal energy of the eruption was ultimately more than 100,000 times greater than that of the Hiroshima bombing in 1945. Approximately 16,000 people died as a result of the event. Much of what is known about the eruption is based on the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, a Roman magistrate who was a writer, as well. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, a Roman military leader, was also present during the eruption, but he died, likely due to inhalation.