Intense heat generated by Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption turned one victim’s brain to glass. While gruesome, the finding published in the journal Scientific Reports, lends insight into the chaotic events that fatal day in A.D. 79.
Although the eruption was a singular event, it killed people in multiple manners. Many Pompeii people suffocated from breathing in toxic fumes from a cloud of gas and ashes. Some may have been crushed by falling objects during an earthquake that may have preceded the event. Others were buried in hot lava. But the victim with the glass brain was unlucky in a specific way.
Scientists have earlier concluded that the “wall of death” cloud of ashes and gasses known as a pyroclastic flow claimed many lives. But it didn’t kill this particular individual. How do they know?
It comes down to temperature, researchers conclude in the study. The conditions necessary to form glass are ...
