Earthquake at same time as eruption could have caused Pompeii deaths – study

Research argues tremors occurred as Vesuvius erupted in AD79, causing buildings to collapse on to people

Victims who perished in Pompeii after the devastating 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have been killed by a simultaneous earthquake, research has suggested.

Scholars have debated for decades whether seismic activity occurred during the eruption of Vesuvius in southern Italy nearly 2,000 years ago, and not just before it, as reported by Pliny the Younger in his letters.