The smallest unit of an element, consisting of at least one proton and (for all elements except hydrogen) one or more neutrons in a dense central nucleus, surrounded by one or more shells of electrons. In electrically neutral atoms, the number of protons equals the number of electrons.
By the time the Vesuvius eruption sputtered to an end the next day, Pompeii was buried under millions of tons of volcanic ash. About 2,000 people were dead. Some people drifted back to town in search of lost relatives or belongings, but there was not much left to find.
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius begins. Mount Vesuvius near Pompeii, Italy, begins to erupt on this day in the year 79; within the next 25 hours, it wipes out the entire town. Hundreds of years later, archaeologists excavated Pompeii and found everything and everyone that had been there that day perfectly preserved by the volcanoâs ash. Pompeii, about 90 miles south of Rome, was established in 600 B.C.E. in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, which stood approximately 6,500 feet high.