Pompeii victims died from asphyxiation not heat

[guy]

 

The victims “relaxed position” suggests that the cause of death was asphyxiation.

 

The victims of Pompeii died a horrible death. Many times it was not, however, the high temperatures or crush injuries that killed them. It was suffocation (and lack of oxygen) that killed the victims.

Quote

Piero Dellino, a professor of volcanology at the University of Bari, Italy, agrees with these conclusions. ‘People were not killed by the mechanics or other things. People were killed because they were breathing ash,’ he says. ‘It was not hot, just that the eruption lasted for a few minutes more than what can be breathable.’

 

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/elemental-analysis-sheds-light-on-pompeii-victims-final-moments/4018044.article

Edited October 9, 2023 by guy

[caldrail]

This seems to be contentious. There's two main camps, one favouring suffocation by whatever means, the other favouring a sudden temperature increase and the various effects of that. I have a sneaky feeling that both camps are correct according to circumstance.

Pompeii was hit by a series of pyroclastic flows, hot turbulent clouds of ash that carry significant energy and flow down the sides of a volcano and out across surrounding terrain due to gravity when the eruption fails to lift the weight. The first nine flows simply deposited ash against the town walls, but the tenth went over the top and into the town.

Those in peripheral areas would have been more at risk of suffocation. Those hit by the cloud mass would experience the heat within it. My two cents.