Plinian eruptions or Vesuvian eruptions are volcanic eruptions marked by their similarity to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, which destroyed the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The eruption was described in a letter written by Pliny the Younger, after the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder.
1822 artist's impression of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79, depicting what the AD 79 eruption may have looked like, by the English geologist George Julius Poulett Scrope. Lightning is depicted around the rising column of ash and gas.
A stone pine, the type of tree used by Pliny to describe the eruption
April 21, 1990, eruption cloud from Redoubt Volcano as viewed to the west from the Kenai Peninsula (more than 60 km from the volcano's summit)
April 2015, subplinian eruption of Calbuco
Types of volcanic eruptions
Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which material is expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often named after famous volcanoes where that type of behavior has been observed. Some volcanoes may exhibit only one characteristic type of eruption during a period of activity, while others may display an entire sequence of types all in one eruptive series.
Some of the eruptive structures formed during volcanic activity (counterclockwise): a Plinian eruption column, Hawaiian pahoehoe flows, and a lava arc from a Strombolian eruption
Ropey pahoehoe lava from Kilauea, Hawaiʻi
An example of the lava arcs formed during Strombolian activity. This image is of Stromboli itself.
Tavurvur in Papua New Guinea erupting
