Seven special glass fragments discovered at a depth of 279 meters beneath the icy continent of Antarctica have been described by scientists as a “golden” discovery.
Dr. Stephen Piva from the School of Geography, Environment, and Earth Sciences at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, stated that these unusual glass fragments from this uninhabited continent date back to 232 AD, originating from one of humanity’s most catastrophic events.
According to Live Science, this event was the Taupō volcanic eruption in New Zealand, recognized as one of the most horrifying “fire disasters” on Earth in the past 5,000 years.
Shimmering glass scattered from New Zealand to the Pacific, reaching all the way to Antarctica after the eruption of the “fire monster” 1,800 years ago – (Photo: James L. Amos).
There has been much debate surrounding this disaster, including the timing and scale of the event. Some studies based on tree rings have provided preliminary estimates regarding the year of the Taupō eruption.
However, the seven glass fragments found in Antarctica have precisely answered the timing of this event and demonstrated the horror of the disaster.
The glass discovered in Antarctica is, of course, not man-made or buried—since there were no ancient communities living in Antarctica—but is “volcanic glass.”
The Taupō eruption was so powerful that the glass formed from extreme heat and pressure was ejected all the way to Southwest Antarctica, hidden within the ice.
The origins of this “terrifying treasure” are revealed through the composition of the glass fragments. Six of the fragments are glass from the Taupō volcanic eruption.
The seventh fragment is even more terrifying, as it represents two eruptions. It was formed by the Ōruanui volcano, which erupted 25,500 years ago. This glass fragment remained near Ōruanui after the disaster.
However, 1,800 years ago, the Taupō fire monster was powerful enough to displace the glass from the earlier eruption, sending it flying all the way to Antarctica.
Debris from the same origin is also scattered across New Zealand’s North Island and the southwestern Pacific, illustrating the eruption’s strength.
Data indicates that the Taupō eruption lasted from several days to several weeks, culminating in an extremely powerful lava explosion that devastated an area of 20,000 km2.
