Could there be survivors in Pompeii in Rome?A new study has studied the remains in the ashes, which only takes a few minutes
It was the autumn of AD 79, and the Apocalypse suddenly came to Pompeii and its nearby cities, Herculaneum, Stabia and Oplontis. An active volcano erupted near Mount Vesuvius, causing pumice, hot ash and gas to fall on it, called a pyroclastic flow. Thousands of people died.
Many residents of these cities died in their homes or on the streets, and the lungs of others were full of toxic gases and particles, burned to death or asphyxiated. Ashes and mud covered the area, allowing the victims to be preserved for future generations.
Now, Daniela Mele from the University of Bari, Italy, and her team have been able to answer a disturbing question: How long will it take for the victims of natural disasters to die?Who can survive
This The research report has been published in “Science Reports”. As he pointed out, the inhabitants of Herculaneum had no chance of survival: the doom in the form of a pyroclastic flow reached the foot of the volcano quickly and mercilessly. The mixture of gas and ashes fell on the side of Vesuvius at a very high temperature, killing anyone along the way within a few seconds.
Hundreds of degrees of ashes and gas engulfed Pompeii for 17 minutes, too long to escape death
Previous studies have shown that Pompeii residents died from thermal shocks of hundreds of degrees Celsius within a few hundred seconds. It can be said that they are cooked immediately when doing daily work.
However, Pompeii is ten kilometers away. Scientists studied models of water flow and how victims were kept in volcanic ash, and concluded that depending on the duration of the pyroclastic flow, there may be survivors in this city.
Archaeologists have repeatedly discovered clothing residues that should burn completely at 130 or 150 degrees Celsius. In fact, if the air is not filled with small hot particles at the same time, the victim may survive these temperatures for several minutes. According to scientists, this greatly shortens the potential survival time.
According to their calculations, the pyroclastic flow engulfed Pompeii for 10 to 20 minutes, and they believed that the duration was about 17 minutes. It took too long to escape death.
This is also of great significance to the current evacuation plan in the Naples area. If the gas and ashes have cooled, the further away from the eruption point, if the flow time is not too long, the greater the chance of survival. In any case, you must run.
reference
The impact of the duration of pyroclastic density flow on humans: Vesuvius eruption (79 AD)