These happen at stratovolcanoes, mostly. Pelean eruptions are named for the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelee which killed about 29000 people in the city of St. Pierre. The people were killed by a pyroclastic flow which overwhelmed the city. Plenty of other volcanoes erupt this way on occasion. Plinian The most violent kind of eruption, extremely explosive.
Some Plinian eruptions are so powerful they can change the climate for years at a time.
The 79 A.D. eruption of Mt. Vesuvius . A Plinian eruption of the Greek volcano Santorini in 1650 B.C. resulted in much of the island being blown away and sinking into the sea, probably ended the Minoan civilization, and may be the source of the Atlantis myth. Note that most volcanoes erupt similar kinds of material over time, but may erupt in different manners during different eruptions, and may, in fact, display different types of behavior during different stages of a single eruptive sequence. Basically, as with all classification schemes, there are always exceptions. Intrusives and explosive volcanoes, often stratovolcanoes Review last lecture and the book to see how the felsic material forms from subducting oceanic plates and sediments.