Vesuvius Becomes Lively Once Again

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 October 1928, Page 9

Vesuvius Becomes Lively Once Again

HIGH up in the observatory which has been planted on the trembling cone <sf Vesuvius, Professor Malladra, the grunt authority on that mountain and its hidden forces, has reported of late an increasing, liveliness. The flow of lava is considerable, and the lava itself is more fluid and less viscous than it is normally.

There is as yet, it is true, no indication that a great eruption is at hand. But the big disturbances come at intervals of about 20 or 30 years, and since it was in 1906 that the last took place one is pretty nearly due. They cannot be exactly timed, and that is one of the difficulties in dealing with a volcano, even when it is so carefully watched as this one is. But there are certain conditions which are regarded by scientists who have specially studied volcanic phenomena as giving definite warning.

The first condition is that the crater should be full. A glance at the diagram of a section of it, based on Professor Malladra’s' calculations, shows that this condition is fulfilled. Since 1926 the crater has been almost full, and at the present time there is a slight overflow of lava from the lowest point of the wall surrounding it. The other two conditions premonitory of great disturbances are the failure of the springs round the mountain and the recurrence of repeated slight earthquake shocks. Neither of these has as yet been reported, so that the present spasm of activity may gradually die down, and without them no very violent outburst is probable. Taking it as a whole, Vesuvius is a very well-behaved volcano. It can be a terrible menace, but. at least it generally lets everybody know well ahead when serious trouble is brewing.

Even the great eruption —the first recorded historically, which overwhelmed Pompeii and Herculaneum--

did not come without signs and omens. The eruption took place in A.D. 79 and for 16 years from A.D. 63 onwards there had been a series of earthquakes, the first of which did immense damage, and the last of which, just on the eve of the eruption, rose in intensity till the final catastrophe. Moreover, in that catastrophe the greater part of the population of Pompeii escaped. Those killed were only a small minority who stayed to collect valuables, or were un able, to get away, like the prisoners and the Roman sentinel at his post. So safe is this volcano, when ordinary precautions are observed, that i: is one of Italy’s most valuable assets. There is no sight more extraordinary or interesting than the crater when a fair degree of activity is being mani tested. Only on one occasion in modern times have there been casualties among spectators. This was in the terrific eruption of 1872, when the cone unexpectedly split and lava and red-hot stones fell in a shower, killing 20 persons on the spot. Nothing could be done to help them. In 1311 there was a landslide which carried away the old upper station of the funicular railway to the itop, but on ttost occasion no one was hawt.