how those encased in the Pompeii volcano were encased so perfectly?
In: Biology
A “pyroclastic flow” (what killed most of the people in Pompeii) is a searing hot cloud of gas at several hundred degrees and rolling down the mountain at hundreds of km/h.
When that hit the city, anyone outside of a bunker would have been killed almost instantly where they were, one breath of the cloud pretty much liquifies your lungs.
Over the next few hours and days, ash from the volcano settled deeper and deeper, burying the bodies of the already-dead people. That’s the trick, they were already motionless and stiff when they were encased. And then what they were encased in too – a thick layer of fine ash that packed in all around them and then compacted further under weight and time, sealing the bodies in a solid mass.
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