Re: Volcano Light

[Brian Whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 11:47 AM 5/20/02, you wrote:
> Consider a very large volcanic eruption: How would the resultant light,
> sound, vibrational effects compare/contrast?  How far away might the night
> time sky be lit approximately as day time and still  the other effects not
> be greatly apparent?  Any historical  events?
>
>
> Jim Green
> mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
> http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen

I will not desist from reporting Pliny junior's note to Tacitus, an historian,
 concerning the last days of his adopted uncle Pliny, who by then was
 Admiral of the Fleet at Misenum. (I abstract and compress into
 the vernacular).

"At 1 p.m my mother mentioned a plume of smoke to Pliny,
at times white, then spotted or dark.
He wished to observe it more closely, and offered me passage
on the vessel - I declined, preferring to continue studying.
He carried with him writing tablets, and on hearing of a plea for
assistance from the sailors stationed at Retina, his resolve was
stiffened by the call of duty to these people and others along that coast.
Steering straight for the danger, he was showered with hot ashes, the
hotter the closer.

Showers of pumice and black stones preventing a landfall on that coast,
so they crossed the bay where conditions were more propitious.

Sheets of flame and roaring fire columns were seen at Vesuvius,
The brilliant glare of which increased as it grew dusk.
After resting in his apartment, Pliny was woken at the point where
cinders almost blocked his exit.
Debating if it would be better to remain in a sheltered spot, or
to escape to the open air, he chose the latter: the building now
 buffeting and jarring violently.

By this time the Sun had risen, but they were still benighted.
With pillows tied on their heads, the party made for the shore,
carrying torches to  light their way through this darkest night.
He soon sank to his death, suffocated by the copious fumes
which doubtless aggravated his asthma, where he was found,
as though sleeping, three days later, when light returned to
that region."

From Historia Naturalis, Pliny, as translated and abstracted
Loyd Haberly FDU
Ungar 1957 loc 57-6696

(Further abstracted and rendered bw)


Brian Whatcott
  Altus OK                      Eureka!