Environmental Hazards in Italy

     While in Italy, we discussed and visited a few locations that have had notable environmental hazards. The most prominent one, and one which most people who haven't ever even been to Italy, is the eruption at Pompeii. We took a trip to Pompeii and got a tour of the site and it was shocking to me how huge the site was. It seemed like it stretched on and on and would take hours and hours to explore the whole thing. It was so interesting seeing everything that was preserved at this site. So many things were excavated and are still being excavated to this day. It was very interesting in the article about the Pompeiian vineyards reading how they were able to make casts in the holes left by decayed organic material in order to learn about not just the people, but also the plants and animals in this area. For instance, they were able to make casts of the roots of trees to identify them and could even see the mathematical precision the romans used, planting vines exactly four Roman feet apart.

    Aside from Pompeii, we also went to Orvieto and learned about the earthquakes that happened there. We saw how it effected some of their infrastructure and how other structures were relatively unharmed. We also witnessed how they are putting stabilizers on some of the buildings in order to protect them in the future. Since Orvieto is full of historical buildings, it's important for them to have techniques to preserve them from future dangers.

    

Lastly, we went to Amalfi and read about the landslide risk there. During the landslide, many people were out of town, so only a few were killed, but it still caused quite a bit of damage. In our time on the Amalfi Coast, we went on multiple hikes along the mountainsides and were able to see these steep slopes overlooking the sea. We also saw in a few locations evidence of small landslides along the paths. These steep cliffs did however provide incredible views of the coast.