They conclude the vitrification was caused by an ash cloud that arrived in Herculaneum before the pyroclastic flows from the volcano. Pyroclastic flows are extremely hot and fast currents of ...

Located about 8km southeast of Vesuvius, Pompeii was violently pelted by falling pumice and ash for about 12 hours before its final destruction by what are called “pyroclastic surges”: fast ...

However, the pyroclastic flows, composed of fast-moving volcanic material and toxic gas, that charged out of Vesuvius and buried Herculaneum could not have caused the brain tissues of this young ...

Herculaneum was buried by a pyroclastic flow: a burst of super-hot gas and matter ejected by a volcano at breakneck speeds. While the ash and rocks from this pyroclastic flow preserved the town ...

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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 ...

In A.D. 79, a man who died in Mount Vesuvius' eruption near Pompeii had a rare transformation: His brain seemingly turned into glass. But scientists have long debated how it happened, because the ...

Volcanoes like Mount St. Helens also often release pyroclastic flows, which are avalanches of hot rock, gas and ash that spill down the slopes at more than 200 mph (320 km/h). Pyroclastic flows ...