The historian Diodorus Siculus said that there was a story that Hercules once passed through the country of Cumae when he was going to Sicily. There, he found a place called "the Phlegraean Plain" ("phlegraion pedion", "plain of fire"). It said that it was "from a hill which anciently (from a long time ago) vomited out called Vesuvius." Giant "sons of the Earth" lived inside it. With the help of the gods, he helped the people there and went on. An ode by Martial in AD 88 suggests that Venus and Hercules were worshipped in the place that was destroyed by the eruption in AD 79.
The volcano was often called "Vesuvius" in the late Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was also called "Vesaevus, Vesevus, Vesbius", and "Vesvius". Writers in ancient Greek called it "Οὐεσούιον" or "Οὐεσούιος". Many scholars think the word "Vesuvius" was related to the Greek word "οὔ" ("not") and σβέννυμι ("I quench"), so that it would mean "unquenchable". Others think it might come from ἕω "hurl" and βίη "violence", "hurling violence".
Vesuvius has a large cone ("Gran Cono") which is partly surrounded by the top of a caldera which was made when an earlier and much higher structure called Monte Somma collapsed. The Gran Cono was made during the eruption of AD 79. For this reason, the volcano is also called Somma-Vesuvius or Somma-Vesuvio.
Before Mount Vesuvius exploded in 84 B.C.E people who lived nearby did not even know that it was a volcano, because it had not erupted for 600 years. At about 1 PM, on August 24, AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted violently. It showered ash and pumice on the town of Pompeii, which was 5 miles away.
Today, people think the eruption of 79 AD lasted more than 19 hours. It was noticed by Pliny the Younger who described the mushroom cloud from the volcano as being in the shape of umbrella pine, a tree commonly found in the region. Pliny the Younger was the only person to write the story down.
There were many ways that people died. One was that the smoke that they breathed in was deadly because it dried in their lungs and formed glass. They also were buried by powdery ash from the volcano, which was all over them. Over time this ash turned to a sort of rock, protecting the bodies and the city from the weather and from robbers.
Vesuvius erupted 50 more times after the eruption in 79 AD. Vesuvius was named a national park in 1995.
1853
1853 (MDCCCLIII) was a common year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday in the Julian calendar.
1891
March 15
1371
Mineralogy
Mineralogy is the study of minerals. Minerals are things that make rocks. There are many different types of minerals. Some are hard, like diamonds. Some are soft, like talc. Some are metal, like gold or silver. Minerals are put into special groups of minerals made of similar chemicals, or that have similar structures inside. For example, the chemicals that make up some minerals line up in chains, while in other minerals, they make bow-tie shapes.
Studying minerals can be useful for figuring out certain things about a rock. Sometimes the shape or size of the mineral can tell something about the rock as well. For example, minerals in igneous rocks can help figure out how long the rock took to cool down (turn from lava into a rock). Larger minerals mean the rock cooled slowly (probably underground). Smaller minerals mean the rock cooled down quickly (probably above ground, like from a volcano). The type of mineral in a rock can also tell what kind of a rock it is, or what has happened to the rock since it formed. Many rocks are named based on what kinds of minerals they have.
Mineralogists (people who study minerals) study minerals in rocks with hand lenses (a magnifying glass), and in thin section (thin slices of rock) with microscopes. They record things about the minerals like how big they are, what shape they are, what color they are, and if the mineral changes colors when you turn it. Mineralogists also record what color minerals turn in a special light. These details can help mineralogists figure out what minerals they are looking at.
Minerals can be used in a lot of different things, like mining, jewelry, farming, pottery, making metals, and more . Mineralogists can help find important minerals in the Earth using what they know and learn.
Supermarket
A grocery store (or just grocery) is a retail store that sells food. Most grocery stores sell fresh fruit, vegetables, seafood, meat, and other prepared foods.
The person who controls a grocery store is called a grocer. A grocer will order food from farmers or other people who send out farmers food to other grocery stores and restaurants.
There are a range of different types and sizes of grocery stores. Some grocery stores are small community stores with a limited range of items. Other grocery stores are large stores with a vast selection of food items.
They may also sell household cleaning and laundry supplies, and hygiene items (soap, toothpaste, etc.). They may also contain a pharmacy (known as a drug store or chemist in some places).
Items at a grocery store can be sold in one of two ways. Most fruits, vegetables, meat, and seafood are usually sold by weight (for example, apples cost 99 cents per pound), while other items are usually sold by quantity (for example, table salt costs $1.59 for each box). Not all items are the same price at each grocery store. Also, every week, some items at grocery stores cost less that what it normally would cost (we say that these items are "on sale"), so people would want to go buy them since they don't have to pay as much as they would normally have to get that item. Many grocery stores print a flyer that shows which items are on sale that week. These flyers are then sent to other people in the mail, who would read the flyer and go to the store to buy the items shown in it.
Supermarkets are large grocery stores that sell a large variety of fresh and packaged food and other consumer or household products. Supermarkets are divided into sections, such as bakery, dairy, produce (fruits and vegetables), frozen, meat, and deli, along with a "general grocery" section where one can find packaged goods, cleaning supplies, and personal hygiene items. Many supermarkets today now also sell hot, prepared food that is ready to eat, or contains a food court with different fast food shops. The term "supermarket" usually refers to a larger store than the term "grocery store."
A hypermarket is a very large supermarket that is part of a larger general merchandise store such as Walmart, which also sells clothes, electronics, household hardware, and other items. It can be said to be a hybrid (or combination) of a grocery store and a department store. These stores are mainly found in suburbs where there is a lot of room to build and near where people live.
In the past, grocery stores used to be small. The owner, called a shopkeeper, would ask the customer what he or she would like to buy. The shopkeeper would then get the items, bring it to the customer, and put them in bags which the customer would take with them. He would then calculate how much the customer has to pay, and take the money from the customer. The customer then takes the bags of items out of the store by him/herself.