Mount Vesuvius, known as Mount Vesuvio in Italy, is one of the world’s most famous and dangerous volcanoes, located in a populated area on the Bay of Naples in Italy (Popham 1). Naples is a beautiful little city with Vesuvius as one of its main attractions. Naples is also distinguished by many steep slopes, which happen to be the inner walls of interconnecting crater rims (Bullard 185). The Naples area is related to the Phlegraean Fields, which consists of nineteen different craters in an area about 25 square miles. Vesuvius is thought to have formed 17,000 years ago and was constructed within a massive caldera called Mount Somma. Vesuvius first erupted in 79 A.D. and buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. “Vesuvius is an extremely active volcano and particular for its unusually varied style of activity: it ranges from Hawaiian-style emission of very liquid lava, extreme lava fountains, lava lakes and lava flows, over Strombolian and Vulcanian eruptions to violently explosive, Plinian eruptions that produce large pyroclastic flows” (Pfeiffer 1). Although Mt. Vesuvius has not erupted since 1944, it is still known for its large pyroclastic flows and surges (Ball 1). Prior to 79 A.D., Vesuvius is said to have began as a submarine volcano in the Bay of Naples (Bullard 187). Vesuvius soon became an island and then eventually gained it eruptive parts to join the land as a volcano. “Vesuvius is younger than the first eruptions of the volcanoes in the Phlegraean Fields, since these tuffs are found beneath Vesuvian material” (Bullard 188). The ancients never recognized Vesuvius as a volcano, so it is to be assumed that a long stage of rest interfered between early activity and the eruption of 79 A.D. Later on, the Greeks of the fourth century B.C had settled on the slopes of Vesuvius and declared it as a volcano. Vesuvius, geologically speaking, is 400,000 years of age; this geologic age can be discovered by drilling into the depths of lava (Pfeiffer 1). Vesuvius is a large composite volcano, also known as a stratovolcano. Composite volcanoes are composed of inter bedded lava flows and layers of cinder and ash. Composite volcanoes such as Vesuvius also typically have complex eruptive histories (Lockwood 283). The majority of the rocks that erupt from Vesuvius are andesite. Andesite lava causes the volcanic explosion to be unpredictable or dangerous, and usually occurs along plate boundaries such as Vesuvius (Ball 1). “A general consensus is that andesites must be derived from the upper mantle above dewatering, subducting slabs, initially perhaps as basaltic magmas that later become modified by assimilating material from the lower crust andesites can also form by the mixing of basalt with more silica-rich magma in magma reservoirs (Lockwood 74). The depth of magma reservoir can be determined solely by incidental evidence in a volcano. Usually, the depth of an earthquake, which is associated with a volcanic eruption, gives an idea to the probable depth of the magma chamber (Bullard 218). “Vesuvius is unique in that the geologic structure surrounding the volcano provides a means of establishing the depth of certain formations beneath Vesuvius, and from this information the depth of the magma can be determined” (Bullard 219). Vesuvius is located on the Bay of Naples, which is a faulted synclinal basin. Moreover, Vesuvius, as well as other volcanoes, are located in the middle of the synclinal basin. The rocks that make up this basin dip toward Vesuvius and from this dip in the rocks, the layers below Mount Vesuvius can be estimated (Bullard 219). Plateau-like basements that underlie Vesuvius are usually from basic lava eruptions. Through out this process the magma progressively becomes more acidic, causing the final eruption to consist mostly of pumice and ash. In the final stage of eruption, the cinder cone, which surrounds the lava plateau, is then built. Vesuvius was in this condition before 1036 A.D., and began to pour out new flows of lava (Bullard 221). Besides Vesuvius, many volcanoes in the Mediterranean area have lava eruptions, which indicates large amounts of limestone has absorbed into the magma (Bullard 222). The limestone-assimilation in volcanoes like Vesuvius has been a controversy for a number of years. Since Mount Vesuv