Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the heat and pressure within the earth's core will in its own time
burst through weak seams in the crust and pour its contents across
the landscape. It was not until around ad 580 that the connec-
tion between volcanic output and the fertility of the land was
described in surviving literature. In the warmth and relative
comfort of Caesarea, modern Israel, the historian Procopius
noted that 'after Vesuvius had spat out its ashes, the harvests of
the neighbouring countryside were abundant'. This is perhaps the
earliest known observation in European literature of a volcano
that has a positive, even encouraging tone.
