[Geology2] Scientist question accepted wisdom on what killed Pompeiians

Scientist question accepted wisdom on what killed Pompeiians when Mt.
Vesuvius erupted
MinnPost [USA], Aug 10 2010

Since the uncovering of Pompeii in 1599, archeologists believed that
these ancient Romans died by being suffocated by the ashes and gases
spewing for two days from the mouth of Vesuvius. Their theory rested on
the account of a contemporary witness, Pliny the Younger, who saw the
eruption from across the Gulf of Naples, claiming that his uncle in
Pompeii had taken his last breath under a cloud of ash. "Our scientific
research has proven differently, that death came because of the
temperature, not suffocation," said Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo, a
rogue vulcanologist from the Naples Observatory. "Everything that has
been written in the guides, and the texts, and that has been re-told to
tourists is false," he said. After years of analyzing nearly 100
skeletal casts, testing bone tissue and creating numerous simulations of
the Vesuvius eruption, Mastrolorenzo concluded that the people of
Pompeii were instantly killed by a pyroclastic cloud, a gusty surge
carrying the volcano's lethal temperatures.

http://snipr.com/10oa4h
<http://www.minnpost.com/globalpost/2010/08/10/20378/scientists_question_accepted_wisdom_on_what_killed_pompeiians_when_mt_ve
suvius_erupted>

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