Plinian eruption
![1822 artist's impression of the eruption of Vesuvius, depicting what the 79 CE eruption may have looked like, by the English geologist George Julius Poulett Scrope](/Images/godic/202502/19/Vesuvius1822scrope2600.jpg")
![Plinian eruption: 1: ash plume, 2: magma conduit, 3: volcanic ash rain, 4: layers of lava and ash, 5: stratum, 6: magma chamber](/Images/godic/202502/19/Plinian_Eruption-numbers.svg2600.png")
![A Stone Pine, the type of tree used by Pliny to describe the eruption.](/Images/godic/202502/19/Pinien_La_Brena20042600.jpg")
![April 21, 1990 eruption cloud from Redoubt Volcano as viewed to the west from the Kenai Peninsula](/Images/godic/202502/19/MtRedoubtedit12600.jpg")
Plinian eruptions, also known as Vesuvian eruptions, are volcanic eruptions marked by their similarity to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The eruption was described in a letter written by Pliny the Younger; it killed his uncle, Pliny the Elder.