A brutal animation showcases the terrifying reality of the Pompeii volcanic eruption for the unsuspecting citizens living beneath the city.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii, Italy, in 79 AD is still regarded as one of the deadliest in history - with the death toll estimated to be around 16,000.
To the unsuspecting citizens below, after the eruption they were bombarded with clouds of super-heated gases, molten rock raining from the skies and hot ash. Not exactly a peaceful way to go out.
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The event destroyed multiple Roman towns and settlements in the area and buried citizens and artefacts beneath the pyroclastic flows.
So if you have a fear of being consumed by a volcano that erupted with 100,000 times the thermal energy of the atomic bombs dropped in Japan in WW2, it might be worth skipping.
But if you are fascinated by the raw power of mother nature it might be right up your alley:
A 2020 exhibition at the Grand Palais museum in Paris highlighted the horror of event and brought it to life.
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Digital Projection teamed up with French integrator ETC Onlyview to bring the exhibition to the museum, which showed the historical city, before, after, and most terrifyingly, during the dramatic eruption.
Unfortunately, the exhibition has now closed so you are out of luck if you do happen to be bopping about Paris.
But thanks to the magic of social media, people have been able to view the animation that drew people to the museum.
In 2020, the Italian Embassy in France shared a snippet of the eruption animation on its X (formerly Twitter) page.
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The animation shows what it would have looked like for the towns beneath when the volcano erupted and the few seconds of life they had left before they were overcome by pyroclastic flows.
After the eruption, a plume of black smoke is seen billowing out of the volcano before molten rocks fall on the city below.
From the view of the animation, the pyroclastic flows can be seen rapidly moving down the mountain before consuming the house.
The city and eruption itself has fascinated scientists and archeologists since it's discovery and both Pompeii and Herculaneum are massive points of interest and tourism in Naples, Italy.
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The sites have fully intact streets, with some of them even having murals inside the buildings being very well preserved - even intact in some places.
However, it's best to not take anything from these sites - which is what happened to one tourist who took a piece of 'cursed' volcanic rock from the site before swiftly returning it.
Topics: News, World News