[aruanan]

Fabulous! One of the most moving things I ever saw was at a display of things removed from the lava of this Vesuvius eruption. It was the shape of a persons body but made out of clear acrylic. They had found the hollowed out body shape that the lava formed around the body and filled it with liquid acrylic. You could see the contorted shape of the agonized person when they were burned to death by the lava.

It wasn't lava. It was ash. The death throes were caused by poison gases that swept down the mountain. Rapid burial by and solidification of the ash preserved the shapes of the dead and dying. The void was left by subsequent decomposition of the bodies. If lava had rolled over them, they would have been burned up almost immediately.

[Ditter]

Yes of course you are right, I remember now. The ash hardened into rock and left the cavities. Did you happen to see the exhibit? I saw it at the Museum of Fine Art Houston.