pyroclastic

English

Etymology

From pyro- +‎ clastic, from Ancient Greek πῦρ (pûr, “fire”), and κλαστός (klastós, “broken”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æstɪk

Adjective

pyroclastic (not comparable)

1. (volcanology) Mostly composed of rock fragments of volcanic origin or comminuted during an eruption.
   • 1862, Joseph Beete Jukes, “Igneous Rocks”, in The Student's Manual of Geology‎^[1], 2nd edition, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 68:

     The word "ash" is not a very good one to include all the mechanical accompaniments of a subaerial or subaqueous eruption, since ash seems to be restricted to a fine powder, the residuum of combustion. A word is wanting to express all such accompaniments, no matter what their size or condition may be, when they are accumulated in such mass as to form beds of "rock." We might call them perhaps "pyroclastic materials," ...

Derived terms

• pyroclastic flow
• pyroclastic rock
• pyroclastic surge

Translations

composed of volcanic rock fragments

• Catalan: piroclàstic
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 火山碎屑 (huǒshān suìxiè)

• Finnish: tuliperäinen (fi)
• French: pyroclastique (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Galician: piroclástico m
• German: pyroklastisch (de)
• Irish: pireaclastach
• Italian: piroclastico (it)
• Polish: piroklastyczny m
• Spanish: piroclástico

Noun

pyroclastic (plural pyroclastics)

1. A rock mostly composed of rock fragments of volcanic origin
   • 1897, “General Notes: Geology and Paleontology”, in Edward D. Cope and Frederick C. Kenyon, editor, The American Naturalist: An Illustrated Magazine of Natural History‎^[2], volume 31, Philadelphia: The Edwards & Docker Co., No. 363, page 221:

     The basic volcanics are altered andesites, porphyritic diabases and andesites, and various pyroclastics.