Scientists have found that the brain of a young man who perished in the Vesuvius volcanic eruption over 2,000 years ago was preserved as it turned to glass in an incredibly hot cloud of ash.
When the glass was discovered in 2020, scientists hypothesized that it was a fossilized brain, but they were unsure of how it had originated.
The victim, who was around 20 years old when the volcano erupted in 79 AD close to present-day Naples, had pea-sized pieces of black glass discovered inside his head.
According to scientists, the brain was encased in a cloud of ash that was as hot as 510C. The cloud rapidly cooled, turning the organ into glass.
It is the sole instance of organic material, including human tissue, naturally converting to glass that is known to exist.
The brain belonged to a man who was murdered in his bed inside the Collegium, a structure located on the main thoroughfare of the Roman city of Herculaneum.
The investigators discovered glass fragments that varied in size from 1-2 cm to a few millimeters.
Up to 20,000 people lived in adjacent Pompeii and Herculaneum before the huge Vesuvius eruption destroyed them. Approximately 1,500 people’s remains have been discovered.
Scientists now believe that the majority of the casualties were likely caused by the scorching ash cloud that plummeted from Vesuvius first.
The region was then buried by a swift flow of hot gas and volcanic material known as a pyroclastic flow.
Because the pyroclastic flow would not have reached high enough temperatures or cooled down fast enough, experts think the ash cloud converted the man’s brain into glass.
Glass creation rarely happens naturally and requires extremely precise temperature conditions.
There must be a significant temperature differential between a substance and its surroundings for it to change to glass.
Its liquid state must be significantly hotter than its surroundings and cool quickly enough to avoid crystallizing when it solidifies.
Using electron microscopy and x-ray imaging, the scientists came to the conclusion that the brain had to have been heated to at least 510C before rapidly cooling.
It is thought that the man’s body did not turn to glass in any other areas.
The bones could not have vitrified because only materials that contain liquid may turn into glass.
The heat probably damaged other soft tissues, such as organs, before they could cool down sufficiently to become glass.
