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Geology & Earth Sciences vocabulary · Volcanoes

Pyroclastic flow

Meaning in geology & earth sciences, with examples

nounCommon term

In geology & earth sciences, pyroclastic flow means: A fast-moving, ground-hugging cloud of hot gas, ash and rock fragments that rushes down the side of a volcano during an explosive eruption.

In Turkish: piroklastik akıntı, piroklastik akış

How it is used

The deadliest volcanic hazard: pyroclastic flows can travel at more than 100 km/h at temperatures of several hundred degrees. They killed the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum in AD 79. Their deposits form ignimbrite and tuff.

Example sentences

  1. Pyroclastic flows swept down the valley and buried the villages.

  2. The soft tuff of Cappadocia was laid down by ancient pyroclastic flows.

Common collocations

  • pyroclastic flow deposits
  • pyroclastic density current
  • deadly pyroclastic flows
  • pyroclastic material
  • volcanic ashTiny fragments of rock, minerals and volcanic glass, less than 2 mm across, blasted into the air by explosive eruptions.
  • eruptTo send out lava, ash and gas, either in a violent explosion or as a quieter flow of lava. Said of volcanoes, and also of geysers.
  • calderaA large, bowl-shaped hollow formed when the ground above a magma chamber collapses after a big eruption has emptied the chamber.
  • volcanoAn opening in the Earth's crust where magma, gas and ash come out, and the mountain or hill built around it by repeated eruptions.

More terms: Volcanoes

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