Scientists found intact neurons preserved as obsidian in the corpse of a victim of the Pompeii eruption, somehow the intense heat preserved the brain. How did this happen?
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They don’t know for sure, this article: [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mount-vesuvius-turned-mans-brain-cells-glass-180976073/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mount-vesuvius-turned-mans-brain-cells-glass-180976073/)
suggests that the extremely rapid heating via exposure to superheated volcanic ash, and subsequent cooling and lack of oxygen caused the tissue to vitrify (literally “turn to glass”).
The intense, heat, pressure and lack of oxygen trapped his brain matter in a sort of natural pressure anvil, (which is what they use to artificially create diamonds in labs). Combined with the hot mineral soup of the pyroclastic cloud likely mixed into his brain matter and fused it as it cooled.
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