
How to escape from an erupting volcano - never-the-bride
https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-escape-from-erupting-volcano/
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chrisco255
I bet the surge pricing on Uber chariots was astronomical during the Vesuvius
eruption.

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susam
An interesting animation related to this topic: A Day in Pompeii - Full-length
animation:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY_3ggKg0Bc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY_3ggKg0Bc)

~~~
Markoff
Judging by animation it would be quite obvious to leave at 1PM and you still
have plenty of time until 5PM before things get really bad, heck in 2 hours
you can get at least 12km away to Nocera inferiore, where you would be already
pretty safe and in another hour to Cava de tirreni where you would be
completely safe

~~~
folli
I don't know if this is really as obvious as you suggest. If you grow up near
a volcano (see for example modern day active volcanoes in Indonesia or Etna
and Stromboli in Italy), you will be used to some degree of rumbling and smoke
and ashes spewing. So this might be regarded as a normal occurrence. Until
it's too late, of course.

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fractallyte
I love this comment from a previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22133112](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22133112)

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tobltobs
If you are fascinated by this, you will also be interested in the similar
drama of the eruption of Mount Pele on Martinique in 1902.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1902_eruption_of_Mount_Pel%C3%...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1902_eruption_of_Mount_Pel%C3%A9e)
or [https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-
may-8-1902-...](https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-
may-8-1902-deadly-eruption-mount-pelee)

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dheera
When I visited Pompei and Herculaneum my first thought is I couldn't help but
to think how stupid humans are for rebuilding those towns in exactly the same
place, and even closer to the volcano than the ancient destroyed towns.

Farms, I get it -- fertile soil -- but why cities? Did people not learn from
the historical records of their time, to draw lines around the boundaries of
destruction and not build again within those lines?

~~~
taneq
I feel a bit the same about other similar hazards. Cities built on flood
plains that regularly get washed away. Cities built on volcanic hotspots with
regular serious earthquakes. Cities, as you say, in the shadow of active
volcanoes. But people always seem to think "it won't happen again."

~~~
PopeDotNinja
The airport in Kona on Hawaii is built on a lava flow from Hualalai’s last
major eruption about 200 years ago. Hualalai is still considered an active
volcano, too. Maybe they’ve got a force field they haven’t told anyone about.

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kaybe
Hawaii has fairly liquid lava, which means that the dissolved gas can escape
safely and not build up pressure for a big sudden explosion. Accordingly,
while the airport may not be safe, the people should be since they can move
away from any incoming lava in time. The volcanoes with more viscous lava
(such as Vesuvius) are much more dangerous in comparison.

~~~
PopeDotNinja
Interesting, thanks for the info.

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gradschool
As a useful tip in a similar vein, I vaguely remember reading somewhere that
the wells went dry in the area around Vesuvius about a day in advance because
of increased pressure underground. It would be great if anyone with domain
knowledge could confirm or debunk.

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bombastry
I tried researching this and found several websites making this claim, the
most reputable of which is a Smithsonian article
([https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/resurrecting-
pompeii-...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/resurrecting-
pompeii-109163501/)). None of these articles cite any sources, so I tried a
Google Books search and was able to find an excerpt from _Pompeii: The Living
City_ which mentions “the wells and springs that had run dry despite a normal
fall of rain in the preceding months” in the days preceding the eruption. Both
of the authors are academic historians, so it seems like this claim may be
accepted history.

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m4rtink
When we went to Sakurajima, an active vulcano island in the Kagoshima
prefecture, there were flying rock shelters and tables with evacuation routes
in regular intervals, for the local inhabitans to use. This is how a minor
eruption looks like & what locals are long used to:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wqxnJQcQXss](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wqxnJQcQXss)
(Note the cars below just driving about.)

Smaller eruptions are rather continuous, like this one 5 days ago:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7W2iHDZo1Tg](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7W2iHDZo1Tg)

~~~
LargoLasskhyfv
I buy green tea from near there. So called "Ariake Sencha / Gyokuro", out of
Shibushi maybe 15 to 20km away. Joked to the shop owner about how he could
advertise this so much better with a volcano on the bag, instead of just plain
white paper bag with black lettering.

It's very good.

~~~
m4rtink
At the Yunohira observatory they were selling "Volcanic Coffee" produced
somehow locally, complete with a picture of Sakurajima on the bag. :)

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autokad
i had such a hard time reading this article. the text kept moving up and down
because of the adds, I eventually hit control a and copied everythign to a
notepad to read..... wow that was an awful experience.

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teknopaul
It managed to crash the new Firefox. Altho, that is not saying much.

~~~
Markoff
I mean what is not crashing the new firefox, browser choice of the masochists.

edit: I see it hurt feelings of those few diehard fans left, who still didn't
abandon this Titanic.

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srathi
And yet protagonists survive after going through a pyroclastic flow routinely
in the movies, such as Jurassic World: FK and 2012. It is a recurring trope in
movies!

~~~
speedgoose
Well, most bad Hollywood movies are not scientifically accurate.

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WJW
Even the good ones are not very scientifically accurate, tbh.

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bryanrasmussen
I don't care, as long as none of them challenge the way to escape an exploding
volcano involves parkour and beating up/shooting bad guys while doing so.

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Markoff
> So instead, you and the rest of the Pompeiians find yourselves 6 miles from
> the vent of Vesuvius with only two options: Run north, or run south.

I dunno, I checked the map and you can run to east and then south without any
mountains towards Cava de tireni and you will be further from Vesuvio than in
Naples plus you can cross small hills and end up in Salerno with unlimited
path further on coast.

~~~
musikele
I don't know what kind of considerations drove the author to exclude east. We
know that from Pompeii to Nuceria (now Nocera Inferiore) there was a road, but
probably not well maintained. Consider that at the time this was probably, a
huge forest. Nocera itself was only interested by the earthquakes and not by
any pyroclastic event, nor gases. Here's an image of the eruption of the time:
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/Mt...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/Mt_Vesuvius_79_AD_eruption-
la.svg/350px-Mt_Vesuvius_79_AD_eruption-la.svg.png) So probably the author
felt that travelling to Nuceria was more dangerous, because you would be
exposed to the winds that could bring the gases to you at any time. I'll try
to reach out to the author and ask him directly why the east road was
excluded.

~~~
Markoff
but it's closer than Neapolis and more logical for most people than going
towards the volcano

~~~
musikele
I just received an answer from the professor that was interviewed in this
article. His answer explains why going east is not advised. There was just
another eruption that can be compared to the one of 79 BC, and happened around
2000 BC. During that event, the direction of the material was towards east,
reaching the city of Avellino. Other (less intense) eruptions that have been
studied all showed that winds generally go to east/east south east. 79BC is
considered an unicum. To wrap up: \- if you time-travel to 79BC you may
survive going to Nuceria, but we don't have evidence of anyone survived
through that path \- the ones we know survived the event, went to Neaples \-
For future eruptions, go north or south, but avoid east - winds at 2-4000m are
much different respect to what you feel at the ground

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choffee
Of course you would just follow Pierce Brosnan's instructions and "Stay Calm"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWkNT5A3wIk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWkNT5A3wIk)

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fchu
Using the bread as a makeshift N95 to survive is genius

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stared
It is deadly hard, but possible to beat, as the rest of Ori and the Blind
Forest: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wase-
Pt5OQw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wase-Pt5OQw)

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makethetick
I thought it was to duck and cover...

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ruvGaUuVLDc](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ruvGaUuVLDc)

