the.com/pyroclast
a chunk of volcano flung skyward, deciding gravity is a suggestion
means A fragment of solid rock or solidified lava ejected from a volcano during an explosive eruption.
from From the Greek 'pyro-' meaning fire (the same spark behind 'pyromaniac' and 'pyre') joined to 'klastos,' meaning broken or shattered — a cousin of the '-clast' in 'iconoclast,' literally an image-breaker. So a pyroclast is, root for root, a 'fire-broken' thing: rock fire has cracked apart and hurled into the sky. The term entered geological English in the 19th century as scientists built a vocabulary for the violent grammar of volcanoes.
- name origin
- Greek for broken by fire
- size range
- from dust to house-sized blocks
- flow speed
- surges race past 400 miles per hour
- deadly heat
- clouds reach 1000 degrees Celsius
- pompeii killer
- these, not lava, buried the city
for instance
krakatoa 1883 eruption — pyroclastic waves crossed java strait and killed 36,000 people in indonesia