What effects can pyroclastic flow have on people?
A pyroclastic flow is a mixture of volcanic ash and hot (up to 1,800°F) expanding gasses that move at speed of 100-150 miles per hour. These flows tend to hug the ground as the move outward from the volcano. Given the temperature and speed at which they move, it should be evident that someone caught is such a flow has very little chance of survival. As a matter of fact, when a pyroclastic flow moved into the town of San Pier, on the Caribbean Island of Martinique, in 1902 there was only 1 survivor out of a population of 28,000. That one person survived because he was in an underground cell of the town jail. So, pyroclastic flows can be quite deadly.
