The natural disaster that occurred on La Palma with the Cumbre Vieja volcano, brings to the present the end of the City of Pompeii. Although in Pompeii there was no warning and no time to flee, the tragedy claimed countless lives without giving time to anyone or anything. Today it is known that the inhabitants of Pompeii did not die as it was supposed until today.
Surprising news of how the inhabitants of Pompeii died
The tragic events of Pompeii come back to the present every time something new is discovered among its remains. And also sadly when an eruption occurs somewhere on the planet. The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD was truly tragic for the inhabitants of the city. The casts reproducing the dead people of Pompeii send shivers down the spine of visitors. But how did the inhabitants of Pompeii die?
Much has been said and written about this Italian city turned legend by history. Until not so long ago, it was believed that the inhabitants of Pompeii died of asphyxiation. They believed that the vapors emanated by the volcano suddenly was the cause of the mass death.
However, a team of researchers from the Vesuvius Observatory discovered that this was not the case. The inhabitants of this city were surprised by the eruption of Vesuvius in the midst of their work. It was exposure to the high temperature that killed all life almost instantly.
Scorching was the cause of death for the population
In this research, the University Federico II of Naples also took part. They analyzed the volcanic deposits and the structures of their ashes. They also carried out DNA analysis of the victims. They loaded the data into a computer to make a simulation of what happened.
They discovered that the inhabitants of Pompeii did not have a long agony as supposed. Scorching heat, between 300 and 600 °C was the cause of death. The definition of death is that it was by burning.
This study also predicts a future eruption of Vesuvius as dangerous as the one in 79 AD. So it calls for precautions to be taken and drastically change the emergency plans of the present.
The study included ash levels in all areas around Vesuvius. They plotted coordinates and profiles to consider some parameters. The eruption that destroyed Pompeii reached a height of 30 kilometers.
The new study changed the history of Pompeii and Herculaneum
With all this data, scientists determined that a dense, burning, very low cloud covered Pompeii in less than a minute. The remains of the bodies found at Pompeii suggest an instantaneous death known as “cadaveric sapsm”.
In addition, the researchers did another test. They subjected some bone fragments to high temperatures. The results were the same as those seen in the skeletal remains found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Only that in Pompeii the temperatures reached 300° C and in Herculaneum it reached 600° C.
The study produces a drastic change in the history of these two cities. It was not asphyxiation that caused the death of the inhabitants, who dropped instantly dead. It was the cloud of scorching heat that killed them going about their daily chores. Only one or two minutes elapsed from eruption to death. According to the study, nature took only 15 minutes to wipe out Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and Oplontis.
