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. Plinian/Vesuvian eruptions are
marked by columns of volcanic
debris and hot gases ejected high into
the stratosphere, the second layer of Earth's
atmosphere. The key characteristics are
ejection of large amount of pumice and
very powerful continuous gas-driven
eruptions. According to the Volcanic
Explosivity Index, Plinian eruptions have a VEI
of 4, 5 or 6, sub-Plinian 3 or 4, and ultra-
Plinian 6, 7 or 8.
Phreatic eruption, also called a phreatic
explosion, ultravulcanian eruption or steam-
blast eruption, occurs
when magma heats ground or surface
water. The extreme temperature of the
magma (anywhere from 500 to 1,170 °C
(932 to 2,138 °F)) causes near-instantaneous
evaporation to steam, resulting in
an explosion of steam, water, ash, rock,
and volcanic bombs. At Mount St. Helens,
hundreds of steam explosions preceded a
1980 Plinian eruption of the volcano. A less
intense geothermal event may result in
a mud volcano.
 Strombolian eruptions are distinct bursts of
fluid lava (usually basalt or
basaltic andesite) from the mouth of a
magma-filled summit conduit. The
explosions usually occur every few minutes
at regular or irregular intervals. The
explosions of lava, which can reach heights
of hundreds of meters, are caused by the
bursting of large bubbles of gas, which
travel upward in the magma-filled conduit
until they reach the open air.
This kind of eruption can create a variety of
forms of eruptive products: spatter, or
hardened globs of glassy lava; scoria, which
are hardened chunks of bubbly lava; lava
bombs, or chunks of lava a few cm to a few
m in size; ash; and small lava flows (which
form when hot spatter melts together and
flows downslope). Products of an explosive
eruption are often collectively called
tephra.
A Vulcanian eruption is a type of volcanic
eruption characterized by a dense cloud of
ash-laden gas exploding from the crater
and rising high above the peak. They usually
commence with phreatomagmatic
eruptions which can be extremely noisy due
the rising magma heating water in the
ground. This is usually followed by the
explosive clearing of the vent and the
eruption column is dirty grey to black as old
weathered rocks are blasted out of the
vent. As the vent clears, further ash clouds
become grey-white and creamy in colour,
with convolutions of the ash similar to those
of Plinian eruptions.
The term Vulcanian was first used
by Giuseppe Mercalli, witnessing the 1888–
1890 eruptions on the island of Vulcano.