Mount Vesuvius, Italy

Composite volcano

Height: 1281 m

Last eruption: 1944 – lava & pyroclastics. The famous “Plinian” eruption of AD 79 was much more violent, producing ash clouds and pyroclastic flows that destroyed the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Vesuvius lies within a caldera, the remains of an older and larger volcano (Monte Somma) that collapsed in a violent eruption about 17,000 years ago.