Researchers announced Tuesday, February 21, 2012; that a 300-million-year-old forest preserved under a layer of volcanic ash was found and called it “Chinese Pompeii”.
Image Credit: gizmodo.com
After being covered from a volcano eruption, the town of Pompeii became prominent over 2,000 years ago. The said eruption resulted in over 100 centimeter layer of ash able to cover the long lost found forest.
An author in a journal explains: “This ash-fall buried and killed the plants, broke off twigs and leaves, toppled trees, and preserved the forest remains in place,” This article published last Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Hermann Pfefferkorn, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of the study stated “It’s marvelously preserved”, “We can stand there and find a branch with the leaves attached, and then we find the next branch and the next branch and the next branch. And then we find the stump from the same tree. That’s really exciting”.
