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Radiation from an earthquake may be responsible for the mysterious Turin Shroud image many believe to be a depiction of Jesus Christ, scientists claim.
An Italian team at the Politecnico di Torino, a well respected Italian University, claims the powerful magnitude 8.2 earthquake, which occurred in Old Jerusalem in the year 33 AD, would have been strong enough to release neutron particles from crushed rock.
The flood of neutrons may have imprinted an X-ray-like image onto the linen burial cloth by reacting with nitrogen nuclei, say the researchers.
In addition, the radiation emissions would have increased the level of carbon-14 isotopes – atomic strains of carbon – in the Shroud.
According to the scientists, this may well have confused carbon dating tests conducted in 1988 which suggested the cloth was only 728 years old, and therefore likely to be a forgery.
‘We believe it is possible that neutron emissions by earthquakes could have induced the image formation on the Shroud’s linen fibres, through thermal neutron capture on nitrogen nuclei, and could also have caused a wrong radiocarbon dating,’ said Professor Alberto Carpinteri, from the Politecnico di Torino.
The new theory is published in the journal Meccanica. Continue reading
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