Pyroclastic Flow

pyroclastic flow, in a volcanic eruption, a fluidized mixture of hot rock fragments, hot gases, and entrapped air that moves at high speed in thick, gray-to-black, turbulent clouds that hug the ground. The temperature of the volcanic gases can reach about 600 to 700 °C (1,100 to 1,300 °F). The velocity of a flow often exceeds 100 km (60 miles) per hour and may attain speeds as great as 160 km (100 miles) per hour. Flows may even travel some distance uphill when they have sufficient velocity, which they achieve either through the simple effects of gravity or from the force of a lateral blast out of the side of an exploding volcano. Reaching such temperatures and velocities, pyroclastic flows can be extremely dangerous. Perhaps the most famous flow of this type occurred in 1902 on the French Caribbean island of Martinique, when a huge nuée ardente (“glowing cloud”) swept down the slopes of Mount Pelée and incinerated the small port city of Saint-Pierre, killing all but two of its 29,000 residents.

Pyroclastic flows have their origin in explosive volcanic eruptions, when a violent expansion of gas shreds escaping magma into small particles, creating what are known as pyroclastic fragments. (The term pyroclastic derives from the Greek pyro, meaning “fire,” and clastic, meaning “broken.”) Pyroclastic materials are classified according to their size, measured in millimetres: dust (less than 0.6 mm [0.02 inch]), ash (fragments between 0.6 and 2 mm [0.02 to 0.08 inch]), cinders (fragments between 2 and 64 mm [0.08 and 2.5 inches], also known as lapilli), blocks (angular fragments greater than 64 mm), and bombs (rounded fragments greater than 64 mm). The fluid nature of a pyroclastic flow is maintained by the turbulence of its internal gases. Both the incandescent pyroclastic particles and the rolling clouds of dust that rise above them actively liberate more gas. The expansion of these gases accounts for the nearly frictionless character of the flow as well as its great mobility and destructive power.

The nomenclature of pyroclastic flows is complex for two main reasons. Varieties of pyroclastic flows have been named by volcanologists using several different languages, resulting in a multiplicity of terms. Also, the danger from pyroclastic flows is so great that they have seldom been observed during their formation. Therefore, the nature of the flows must be inferred from their deposits rather than from direct evidence, leaving ample room for interpretation. Ignimbrites (from the Latin for “fire rain rocks”) are deposited by pumice flows, creating thick formations of various-sized fragments of very porous, frothlike volcanic glass. Ignimbrites are generally produced by large eruptions that form calderas. Nuées ardentes deposit ash- to block-sized fragments that are denser than pumice. Pyroclastic surges are low-density flows that leave thin but extensive deposits with cross-bedded layering. Ash flows leave deposits known as tuff, which are made up mainly of ash-sized fragments. Nuée ardente deposits are confined mainly in valleys, while ignimbrites form plateaulike deposits that bury the previous topography (the configuration of the surface). Thick ignimbrites that were very hot when erupted may compact and consolidate into hard, welded tuffs.

The term tephra (ash) as originally defined was a synonym for pyroclastic materials, but it is now used in the more-restricted sense of pyroclastic materials deposited by falling through the air rather than those settling out of pyroclastic flows. For example, ash particles that fall from a high eruption cloud to form widespread layers downwind from a volcanic eruption are referred to as tephra and not as a pyroclastic flow deposit.

In the news media, many accounts of explosive volcanic eruptions incorrectly refer to pyroclastic flows as “lava flows.” Moving lava flows are composed of viscous molten rock. Unlike pyroclastic flows, lava flows move slowly and, on cooling, harden into solid rock.