New Test Proves Accurate

In a reliability test of a chemical dating technique, California scientists pinpointed with unprecedented accuracy the date of the Vesuvius volcano eruption that destroyed Pompeii in ancient Rome.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, used lava from the Vesuvius explosion, which is known to have occurred in A.D. 79, to validate the accuracy of the widely used radioactive-argon dating system.

The results pegged the volcanic eruption at 1,925 years ago, off by just seven years from the date recorded by historians.