It was a strange dark glass. He was in the skull of a victim of the eruption of Vesubio in the year 79 DC was formed when he died because of the ash cloud at high temperature that came out of the volcano and comprises the individual’s fossilized brain. Vesuvio turned a glass brain, according to an investigation in Scientific Reports.
High temperature
Glass rarely occurs naturally due to the specific conditions required for its formation. Its liquid form must cool quickly enough not to crystallize when it becomes solid. This requires a large temperature difference between the substance and its surroundings. And must become solid at a temperature much higher than that of its surroundings. As a result, it is extremely difficult for an organic glass to form. Environmental temperatures are rarely low enough for water to solidify. The only suspicious natural organic glass was identified in 2020 in Herculano, Italy. But it was not clear how this glass was formed.
Guido Giordano, from the University of Rome Tre, analyzed the skull and spinal cord of a deceased individual of Herculano. He was lying in his bed at Collegium augustalium. The analysis included images with X -rays and electronic microscopy. If Vesuvio turned a glass brain, how did it happen? It should have been heated above at least 510 degrees Celsius before cooling quickly.
510 degrees
This could not have happened if the individual was heated only by the pyroclastic flows that buried Herculano. The temperatures of these flows did not reach more than 465 degrees Celsius and would have cooled slowly.
Therefore, the authors reached another conclusion, based on modern observations of volcanic eruptions. A supercalerated ashes cloud that dissipated quickly was the first deadly event during the eruption of Vesuvio. They theorize that such an event would have raised the temperature of the individual above 510 degrees Celsius. It was just before quickly cooling at ambient temperatures as the cloud dissipated. The bones of the skull and the individual’s spine probably protected the brain from a complete thermal decomposition. And allowed the fragments to form this unique organic glass.
Leave your reaction
