A new hazard scenario at Vesuvius: deadly thermal impact of detached ash cloud surges in 79CE at Herculaneum.

ABSTRACT: Diluted pyroclastic density currents are capable to cause huge devastation and mortality around volcanoes, and temperature is a crucial parameter in assessing their lethal power. Reflectance analysis on carbonized wood from ancient Herculaneum allowed a new reconstruction of the thermal events that affected buildings and humans during the 79CE Vesuvius eruption. Here we show that the first PDC entered the town was a short-lived, ash cloud surge, with temperatures of 555-495 °C, capable of causing instant death of people, while leaving only a few decimeters of ash on ground, which we interpret as detached from high concentration currents. The subsequent pyroclastic currents that progressively buried the town were mostly higher concentration PDCs at lower temperatures, between 465 and 390 an

SUBMITTER: Pensa A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10079856 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature