Posted on 06/18/2010 5:51:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The evaluation of mortality of pyroclastic surges and flows (PDCs) produced by explosive eruptions is a major goal in risk assessment and mitigation, particularly in distal reaches of flows that are often heavily urbanized. Pompeii and the nearby archaeological sites preserve the most complete set of evidence of the 79 AD catastrophic eruption recording its effects on structures and people.
Here we investigate the causes of mortality in PDCs at Pompeii and surroundings on the bases of a multidisciplinary volcanological and bio-anthropological study. Field and laboratory study of the eruption products and victims merged with numerical simulations and experiments indicate that heat was the main cause of death of people, heretofore supposed to have died by ash suffocation. Our results show that exposure to at least 250°C hot surges at a distance of 10 kilometres from the vent was sufficient to cause instant death, even if people were sheltered within buildings. Despite the fact that impact force and exposure time to dusty gas declined toward PDCs periphery up to the survival conditions, lethal temperatures were maintained up to the PDCs extreme depositional limits.
This evidence indicates that the risk in flow marginal zones could be underestimated by simply assuming that very thin distal deposits, resulting from PDCs with poor total particle load, correspond to negligible effects. Therefore our findings are essential for hazard plans development and for actions aimed to risk mitigation at Vesuvius and other explosive volcanoes.
(Excerpt) Read more at plosone.org ...
LOL!
Took the words right out of my mouth!
Boiling brainsAlberto Incoronato of the University of Naples Federico II studied 80 skeletons of people who hid in chambers in the coastal cliff face at the foot of the volcano, near Herculaneum. All were found in relaxed poses. This indicates they did not die from choking on the pyroclastic flow of ash and gas that exploded from Vesuvius, says Incoronato. Instead, the intense heat of the flow killed them... Within about one second of the heat wave striking, the victims' vital organs were stopped, their hands, feet and spines contracted and their soft tissues were vaporised, he says.
1900 GMT, 11 April 2001
Y’know, someone sent this link the other day, and I can’t find it in mny old mail. Anyway, posting it in a couple of old topics that are related.
The impact of pyroclastic density currents duration on humans: the case of the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84456-7
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