If the superheated ash cloud doesn't kill you ...

 

... the earthquakes will.

At least, if it's a really big bad eruption, like what happened when Vesuvius went berserk in 79 AD and sent its volcanic wrath over Pompeii and Herculaneum.  Sure, lots and lots of unfortunate Romans were either burned and suffocated or entombed in a pyroclastic flow; BUT if that wasn't the cause of their demise, it turns out the falling walls and collapsing roofs from earthquakes associated with the massive cataclysm also scored some fatalities.

That's what the article is about.

Skeletons discovered at Pompeii show earthquake added to disaster

"Pliny the Younger lived through the eruption as a teenager in Misenum, about 18 miles west of Vesuvius, and described earthquakes the night after the eruption began as “so intense that everything seemed not only to be shaken but overturning.” He also recorded a quake at daybreak — which shook the ground so much that chariots that had been wedged in place with stones were jarred out of place.

But scientists had not discovered direct evidence of earthquakes until they found walls that failed in ways inconsistent with volcanic explanations. Then, they found the skeletons. The first individual’s body was riddled with fractures to the ribs, skull and pelvis. The second individual’s legs were buried under a wall fragment, but he was also huddled on his left side with a hand protecting his head. Scientists think he could have been trying to shield himself.

The new find adds detail to the horror that unfolded early morning on the second day of the eruption, after most of the magma had erupted. A caldera formed when part of the volcano collapsed, causing a dangerous second phase of the eruption and an earthquake, Cioni said. The new evidence raises the possibility that earthquakes could have added to the hazard, as the ground shaking stressed roofs laden with pumice rocks."

It was not a good day.