The AMT preference items are: 1  Depletion. 2  Excess Intangible drilling costs. 3  Interest on private activity bonds. 4  Accelerated depreciation on property placed in service before 1987. 5  Exclusion of gain on qualified small business stock.
The eruption was catastrophic, lasting more than 24 hours. The eruption officially started on the morning of August 24, as molten rock and pumice began to be expelled from Mt. Vesuvius at a rate of 1.5 million tons per second. Copious amounts of rock and volcanic ash filled the atmosphere, turning day into night. It is estimated that about six inches of ash fell every hour.
In 62 A.D. a violent earthquake struck the Vesuvius area. In Pompeii, the reconstruction began immediately, but it took an unusually-long time due the extent of the damage. Seventeen years later, on August 24, 79 A.D., the sudden eruption of Vesuvius buried Pompeii with ashes and lapillus. The buried city was rediscovered in the 16th Century, but it was only in 1748 that the exploration phase began, under the King of Naples Charles III of Bourbon.