A volcano buried a Roman city so completely that it preserved bread still in the oven

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, it buried the nearby city of Pompeii under volcanic ash and pumice so quickly that everyday life was frozen in place: loaves of bread, painted walls, and the shapes of victims themselves, preserved as voids later filled with plaster. The eruption was recorded by an eyewitness, Pliny the Younger, whose letters describing the event are the earliest detailed account of a volcanic eruption in history.

— Pliny the Younger, Letters (6.16 and 6.20, describing the eruption) — c. 104–108 AD