Tephra is air-fall material produced by a
volcanic eruption regardless of composition or fragment size.
[1] Tephra is typically
rhyolitic in composition, as most explosive volcanoes are the product of the more
viscous felsic or high
silica magmas.
Volcanologists also refer to airborne fragments as pyroclasts or sometimes just clasts. Once clasts have fallen to the ground they remain as tephra unless hot enough to fuse together into pyroclastic rock or tuff. The distribution of tephra following an eruption usually involves the largest boulders falling to the ground quickest and therefore closest to the vent, while smaller fragments travel further—ash can often travel for thousands of miles, even circumglobal, as it can stay in the stratosphere for several weeks. When large amounts of tephra accumulate in the atmosphere from massive volcanic eruptions (or from a multitude of smaller eruptions occurring simultaneously), they can reflect light and heat from the sun back through the atmosphere, in some cases causing the temperature to drop, resulting in a climate change "volcanic winter". Tephra mixed in with precipitation can also be acidic and cause acid rain and snowfall.
Tephra fragments are classified by size
The words "tephra" and "pyroclast" both derive from Greek. Tephra means "ash". Pyro means "fire" and klastos means "broken"; thus pyroclasts carry the connotation of "broken by fire".
