Pompeiians healthy before volcanic death, CT scans reveal

The victims of Mount Vesuvius, preserved in ash for nearly 2,000 years, have been CT scanned, revealing details of their lives.

Perhaps the most famous volcanic catastrophe in all of history was the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. It was an extraordinarily violent event: The volcano exploded, heaving ash, stones and fumes 33 kilometres (20.5 miles) into the air, and ejecting crushed pumice and lava at a rate of 1.5 million tons per second.

The eruption lasted 18 hours, spewing several billion tons of debris. This fell on the nearby towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and several smaller settlements. While many citizens were able to evacuate and survive, others took shelter in buildings. This move was ultimately to prove fatal. As the ash and pumice accumulated on rooftops, the buildings collapsed under the weight, burying and suffocating those inside. The bodies were sealed inside when lava flowed and hardened over the top of the ash and pumice.

Herculaneum, which was the closer of the two cities, was buried under 23 metres (75.4ft) of material, including lava flows. Pompeii was buried under 2.5-3 metres (8.2-9.8ft) of material, consisting mainly of pumice and ash. Both cities were considered too damaged to rebuild and were simply abandoned, the bodies left buried.