Today is the anniversary of Pompeii’s tragic eruption 1,933 years ago. I saw the Pompeii exhibit when it came through Dallas in 1979 and I’ve felt a connection to the city ever since. A new animation has been released with a time lapse of the the event that we wanted to share with you as well as a great article about reliving the day via twitter by Alan Boyle.

The minute-by-minute reconstruction of Pompeii’s destruction on Aug. 24 in the year 79 is based on the tale of Pliny the Elder, a Roman scholar and admiral who took command of the city’s evacuation. Not only can you watch the animation, you can by follow the tweets by @Elder_Pliny, a ghost who’s being brought to life by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science starting at 10 a.m. ET Friday, to relive the last hours of Pompeii in real time.

Why Denver? It’s because the museum is due to host an exhibit about Pompeii titled “A Day in Pompeii,” opening Sept. 14. The museum says it’ll be offering an interactive map tracing Pliny’s movements on that fateful day.

The old guy has already gotten a premonition of disaster: “The gods must be roaming the earth,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “I felt the ground shake this morning.”

After the eruption and ashfall, the city was abandoned and largely forgotten. Centuries later, the archaeological excavation of the city revealed a freeze-frame of everyday life for first-century Romans, from trash heaps to their high-class homes. Pompeii has fallen on another round of hard times recently, due to modern-day deterioration — but the site still ranks as one of the archaeological wonders of the world.

At GISetc.com we curate and bring you the best science resources from the web. We hope our sharing will keep you up to date on the latest science and geospatial news. Click here to read the full article from Cosmic Log.