How does clay become ceramic?

Clay is not the same as soil. Clay is a naturally occurring substance that appears in pockets on or under the ground. The technical term for the main chemical components of clay are hydrous aluminum phyllosilicates. The operative word within the structure is silicates. There is silica in clay.

What happens when you fire silica in a high heat? It turns into glass. So what happens when you fire clay in a high heat, it turns into a type of glass often called a ceramic, a process known as vitrification. My brother Bruce takes a pottery class and we have a whole passel of mugs because of it:



Why do I bring this up? It is because in the upcoming novel The Milk Run, Aason Bierak and OMCOM come across large sections of soil, made of clay, that have been converted into a ceramic or vitreous-like substance.

The only thing that could have caused this was the repeated application of high heat. But where would you get such high heat on a cold world like Hades? That is a mystery which they must solve.