The 9 Feet of Pumice That Didn't Kill Pompeii

The eruption of Pompeii by Vesuvius in AD 79 didn't kill the way most people think. This film traces the 18-hour, 21-mile-high pumice fall that put 9 feet of stone on Pompeii's roofs, why 9,500 of 11,000 residents escaped, and the two-minute pyroclastic surge at 7:30 AM that froze those who stayed. It follows Pliny the Younger's eyewitness account, Pliny the Elder's death at Stabiae, the plaster casts, and why 3 million people still live in Vesuvius's red zone.