On August 24 in 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, shooting over three cubic miles of debris up to 20 miles (32.1 kilometers) in the air. As the ash and rock fell to Earth, it buried the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Two sets of human remains, a variety of paintings, and a handful of childrens’ doodles were recently found in Pompeii, the ancient Roman town that was buried by a volcanic eruption in 79.
Researchers studying the remains of six individuals from Pompeii concluded they asphyxiated during the volcanic eruption that doomed the town nearly 2,000 years ago.