The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE released thermal energy roughly equivalent to 100,000 times the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, spewing molten rock, pumice, and hot ash over Pompeii. Pompeii’s public baths, aqueduct, and water towers were among the preserved structures frozen in time. A new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed calcium carbonate deposits from those structures to learn more about the city’s water supply and how it changed over time.
Pompeii was founded in the sixth century BCE. Prior research revealed that, early on, the city relied on rainwater stored in cisterns and wells for its water supply. The public baths used weight-lifting machinery to lift water up well shafts that were as deep as 40 meters. As the city developed, so did the complexity of its water supply system, most notably with the construction of an aqueduct between 27 BCE and 14 CE.
The authors of this latest paper were interested in the calcium carbonate deposits left by water in well shafts as well as the baths and aqueduct. The different layers have “different chemical and isotope composition, calcite crystal size, and shape,” which in turn could reveal information about seasonal changes in temperature, as well as changes over time in the chemical composition of the water. Analyzing those properties would enable them to “reconstruct the history of such systems—particularly public baths—revealing aspects of their maintenance and the adaptations made during their period of use,” the authors wrote.
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