nu·ée ar·dente

(no͞o-ā′ ăr-däNt′)

n. pl. nuées ardentes (no͞o-āz′ ăr-däNt′)

A fast-moving cloudlike mass consisting of gases, hot ash, and other material ejected from an erupting volcano.

[French : nuée, large cloud, thundercloud (from nue, cloud, high clouds; see nuance) + ardente, feminine of ardent, burning (from Old French ardant; see ardent in Indo-European roots).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

nuée ardente

(ˈnyeɪ ɑːˈdɑ̃t)

(Geological Science) a rapidly moving turbulent incandescent cloud of gas, ash, and rock fragments flowing close to the ground after violent ejection from a volcano. See also ignimbrite

[C20: from French, literally: burning cloud]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Mentioned in

ignimbrite

References in periodicals archive

Hours later, a pyroclastic flow came surging down the mountain, wiping out everything and everyone in its path.

Mt. Vesuvius: Were There Any Survivors?

In this study, we have carried out a study of pyroclastic flow mapping using satellite imagery from both radar and optical sensors as well as the LAHARZ program (Figure 3).

Mapping Pyroclastic Flow Inundation Using Radar and Optical Satellite Images and Lahar Modeling

A pyroclastic flow comes from which natural structure?

QUICK QUIZ

Students were also exposed to the effects of the AD79 eruption and the devastation this caused to Pompeii and Herculaneum for example, the site of Herculaneum being buried 16 metres in pyroclastic flow or the bodies of victims encased in ash at Pompeii.

Sorrento visit

1902: Mount Pelee erupted on the island of Martinique: a pyroclastic flow travelling at several hundred miles an hour destroyed the town of St Pierre and killed more than 30,000 people in just three minutes.

ON THIS DAY IN ..

NAGASAKI - The city of Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture, commemorated on Friday the 43 victims of a huge pyroclastic flow from Fugen Peak of Mt.

Kyodo news summary -2-

Another person was also killed by the pyroclastic flow from Fugen Peak on June 23, 1993.

Shimabara commemorates victims of Fugen Peak disaster on 20th anniv

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