This is an educational website designed to help students learn about the processes of explosive volcanic activity through the use of inquiry-based techniques. We will use the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius volcano in Italy as a type example of a large explosive eruption that had a significant impact on the local human population. The eruption is well-known for the burial of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Excavations of these cities by archeologists have provided a unique view of everyday life in Roman times.
What happened in the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum during the fateful two-day eruption in 79 A.D. that led to their entombment for close to 2000 years? In the exercises that follow, you and your fellow students will play the role of a team of volcanologists who are trying to reconstruct the events by examing evidence in the volcanic material that buried the cities. You will travel (virtually) to the Vesuvius area, where you will be able to carry out field observations and take measurements to help you form your own hypotheses about what happened.
The exercises will use the following sequence for the exploration of this unique volcanic environment:
1. View examples of explosive volcanism and examine the effects of the eruptions on the surrounding environnment
2. Learn how volcanologists study the products of explosive volcanism
3. Explore the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and collect field data from the excavations
4. Construct hypotheses about what happened to the cities during the eruption
Design and Production: Steven Carey and Haraldur Sigurdsson
Original Flash Animations: Hiu Lam and Liz McCabe
Educational Consultant: Bette LaSere Erickson
Evaluation: Kathy Guglielmi
HTML5 Compliance and Site Maintenance: Katie Kelley
Animation Conversions: Brian Savage
Roy Bergstrom and the URI Students Technology Assistants Program provided valuable assistance during the development of this project. We thank Google for allowing Google Earth to be used as part of this exercise and David Lea of Living Letter Productions for the use of video footage of the Montserrat eruptions. Darrel McIntire designed the field notebook. Karen Manning provided valuable critiques and testing of the exercise and field notebook.
This project was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education.
Contact Katie Kelley with questions or feedback: kelley (at) uri.edu
Funding provided by the National Science Foundation
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