Verneshot

English

Alternative forms

• verneshot

Etymology

From Verne +‎ shot. Coined by geophysicist Jason Phipps Morgan. Named after French author Jules Verne, who wrote about a projectile escaping Earth's gravity (in the novel From the Earth to the Moon), which Morgan connected to his idea of an eruption launching material into a suborbital trajectory.

Noun

Verneshot (plural Verneshots)

1. (volcanology) A hypothetical volcanic eruption event, caused by a buildup of gas, which launches material from the crust and mantle into a suborbital trajectory, leading to further damage as it crashes back to the surface.
   • 2005, Andy Turnbull, We Need to Talk about the future of Canada, →ISBN, page 43:

     They suggest that the Chicxulub crater — generally believed to be evidence of a meteorite impact that killed the dinosaurs — was actually caused by debris from a “Verneshot” explosion in India, and  […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Verneshot.