The heat damage was likely reduced by the intact fornici walls, given that the people were found in close proximity. Swelling outer tissues and internal water pooling around long bones also meant the skeletons were baked rather than burned.
Crucially, the victims were not being ignited on a pyre; instead, the surges heated the air around them, which is less effective at destroying human tissue than actual fire.
Even at temperatures exceeding 1, degrees Fahrenheit in controlled cremation studies, it takes at least 40 minutes for human tissue to be fully destroyed. Pyroclastic surges cannot come close to replicating these conditions. Petrone agrees that huddled masses would have more protection from heat damage. But he disagrees that temperatures were low inside the fornici, pointing to the glassy-brained victim inside the Collegium , whose skeleton was charred and fractured, and whose skull seemingly exploded due to high surge temperatures.
They died trembling in darkness, through extreme heat exposure or suffocation. Pliny the Younger, a Roman lawyer and author who observed the eruption from a distance, recalled in a letter that some people were so frightened by the event that they actually prayed for death. Many begged for the help of the gods, he wrote, but even more imagined that there were no gods left, and that the last eternal night had fallen on the world.
That, in turn, can help scientists today in their efforts to foresee, and mitigate, a future volcanic disaster. In effect, the doomed people of Herculaneum could be helping to protect the lives of others 2, years after they died. All rights reserved. Now, two studies add a couple twists to the tale.
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Mount Vesuvius apocalyptically ejected a cloud of superheated gas over 30 kilometers into the atmosphere, and rained pumice and ash on the ground below. This eruption is one of the deadliest in human history, and Romanian researchers are fascinated with one question: What if it happened today? While the eruption over two thousand years ago was deadly, volcanoes in modern day pose a new threat to aircrafts, where ash from these eruptions can ground air traffic in nearby skies. Volcanic eruptions spew fine particles of ash less than one millimeter into the atmosphere, which linger and are transported across large distances.
Romania has Vesuvian ash in its soil, leading the researchers to believe that the biggest natural threat to Romanian air travel is an eruption from the mountain. Airports across Central-Eastern Europe are at the mercy of the volcanoes in the Italian Mediterranean region, where Mount Vesuvius calls home.
The researchers used a model to determine the trajectory of ash from the volcano using a few different variables. First, they relied on air circulation pattern data from to in the troposphere, which is the lowest layer of the atmosphere that encompasses most commercial air travel. As the clouds pass from across the top of the mountain, the flame and lava can be seen shooting high into the sky to spill over the sides and run in red streams down the slopes.
Towns on the slopes are preparing to evacuate. Our location is, apparently, safe. At any rate no one here, civilian or Army authorities, seems too much worried. Lava has not started to flow down this side of the mountain as yet but is flowing on the other side toward Naples. But their luck would soon change — something for which the unit was known. But it was also exacerbated by its encounter with Vesuvius. Vesuvius has a long eruptive history and, being just 12 kilometers from downtown Naples, threatens a large population.
The first on this side. Soon many swift, fiery streams were flowing in all directions. The rumbling continues — more prolonged now. This evening it would seem that the whole top of the mountain is burning. Fiery patches here and there resemble a log which is just burning out. Heavy explosions occur followed by prolonged rumbling while sparks and molten lava are thrown high into the air to fall like rain on all sides of the cone.
In the intervening eight days, the crews had been evacuated to a nearby airfield where they spent a frigid night in a tobacco shed, leaving their airplanes behind. The damage to the bombers, some of which were ultimately repaired and returned to service, was not reported in the U. Germany, however, was aware of the losses earlier. While Vesuvius claimed no military fatalities during the eruption, 26 Italian civilians were killed and nearly 12, were displaced. Most died near Salerno, where heavy ashfall collapsed roofs.
Falling volcanic rock killed three in Terzigno. And in San Sebastiano, hot ash boiled a water tank, which exploded, killing two children. But volcanologists no longer need to crawl to the edge of a lava stream in order to monitor the volcano; they have at their disposal a wide variety of remote sensors that measure seismic activity, ground deformation, gravimetric and magnetic field variations, soil and groundwater temperatures, and the composition of gases emitted from fumaroles.
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