Archaeologists and volcanologists have proven that the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius turned a young man's brain into glass.

The young man’s skull and spine likely protected the brain from “complete thermal breakdown,” allowing fragments of the unique organic glass to form. Unlike pyroclastic flows, which hug the ground, an ...

A fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter, also called a pyroclastic flow, followed, burying the area. Experts believe the ash cloud turned the man's brain into glass because the ...

It's possible that the guardian's thick skull bones and spine offered a little ... tissues of other victims at Herculaneum. Once the ash cloud dissipated, temperatures returned to ambient ...

A fragment of the organic glass found inside the skull of the deceased individual in Herculaneum, 2024Credit: Pier Paolo Petrone But the extreme heat from the short-lived ash cloud that swept ...

found inside the skull of an individual who died in Herculaneum during the 79 CE Mount Vesuvius eruption, likely formed when they were killed by a very hot but short-lived ash cloud. The ...

A unique, dark-colored glass found inside the skull of a Roman killed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius is his brain—cooked into a fossil by an ash cloud. This is the horrific revelation of an ...

Under the lamp, I suddenly saw small glassy remains glittering in the volcanic ash that filled the skull," Petrone said ... in town of an early hot ash cloud. This highlights the importance ...

“These clouds can be hot enough to kill you.” To reach the findings, Giordano and his colleagues systematically cooled and heated fragments of the glass sampled from inside the skull and spine ...