The term tephra (from the Greek for ash) was first used by Aristotle in an account of an eruption of Hièra (Vulcano) in his book “Meteorologica.” It refers to the clastic volcanic material that is transported from the vent through the air during an eruption (Thorarinsson, 1954) and thus is a parallel term to lava, which signifies all the molten material flowing from a vent. It is particularly useful for general description of predominantly unconsolidated pyroclastic deposits (Schmid, 1981), as the term implies no particular grain size. Ash, on the other hand, has been specifically defined by Fisher (1961) as pyroclastic debris of diameter <2 mm and pumice is restricted by many authors to pyroclastic debris that will float on water.
The composition of tephra may range from acidic to basic, depending on the host magma, and the content can vary from entirely primary fragments to entirely accessory fragments (Wentworth and Williams, 1932). Whether the term should be restricted to airfall...
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Cole, J.W. (1989). Tephra. In: Petrology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30845-8_238
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