Abstract
The Italian volcano, Vesuvius, erupted explosively in AD 79. Sanidine from pumice collected at Casti Amanti in Pompeii and Villa Poppea in Oplontis yielded a weighted-mean 40Ar/39Ar age of 1925±66 years in 2004 (1σ uncertainty) from incremental-heating experiments of eight aliquants of sanidine. This is the calendar age of the eruption. Our results together with the work of Renne et al. (1997) and Renne and Min (1998) demonstrate the validity of the 40Ar/39Ar method to reconstruct the recent eruptive history of young, active volcanoes.
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Acknowledgements
Forrest McFarland made the sanidine separations from pumice samples from Casti Amanti and Villa Poppea. James Saburomaru assisted with the Ar determinations. Neutrons were provided by Tim Debey and staff of the US Geological Survey reactor center in Denver, Colorado. We are grateful to Professor Guzzo and Dr. A. Ciarallo of the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompeii who allowed our field work in archaeological sites. Julie Donnelly-Nolan and Tom Sisson reviewed the manuscript and offered valuable comments. We thank Professor. R. Cioni, and Drs. Villa and Scaillet for valuable comments on the original manuscript.
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Lanphere, M., Champion, D., Melluso, L. et al. 40Ar/39Ar ages of the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius, Italy. Bull Volcanol 69, 259–263 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-006-0071-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-006-0071-8