14 DAY TRIAL // In a recent paper in the journal Geology, researchers with the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom argue that, according to evidence at hand, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea was once covered in searing-hot glass.
The island in question is named Pantelleria and is located in the Strait of Sicily, at a distance of about 60 kilometers (about 37 miles) east of Tunisia and 100 kilometers (roughly 62 miles) southwest of Sicily.
The island has an area of just 83 square kilometers (approximately 32 square miles), and it is a volcano. According to the University of Leicester, it is precisely volcanic activity that Pantelleria owes its peculiar history to.
In their paper, the specialists explain that, about 45 thousand years ago, the volcano that sits at the core of this island in the Mediterranean Sea erupted, and that this event eventually caused Pantelleria to become covered in hot glass.
Thus, they say that, during a distant volcanic eruption, molten rock fragments came together, formed a really hot and sticky goo, and eventually covered the island it in its entirety, EurekAlert explains.
“A ground-hugging cloud of intensely hot gases and volcanic dust spread radially out from the erupting volcano in all directions,” says researcher Mike Branney.
Furthermore, “Incandescent rock fragments suspended in the all-enveloping volcanic cloud were so hot, molten and sticky that they simply fused to the landscape forming a layer of glass, over hills and valleys alike.”
“The hot glass then actually started flowing down all the slopes rather like sticky lava. ‘Ground zero’ in this case was the entire island – nothing would have survived – nature had sterilized and completely enameled the island.”
Interestingly enough, the University of Leicester claims that, as far as they can tell, the island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean Sea has until now experienced not one, but at least five peculiar eruptions of this type.
Presently, the island looks like your average patch of land, at least when observed from afar. However, Mike Branney and his colleagues say that traces of the green glass that once covered it are still visible.
“Today Pantelleria is verdant and has been recolonized, but even as you approach it by ferry you can see the green layer of glass covering everything – even sea cliffs look like they've been draped in candle wax,” Mike Branney adds.
The specialists have reasons to believe that one day, most likely several thousand years from now, the island will once again erupt and become engulfed in molten glass.