Lahar

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈlÉ‘hɑɹ/

Origin

From Javanese.

Full definition of lahar

Noun

1. (geology) A volcanic mudflow.
• 1985, Jocelyn Thornton, Field Guide to New Zealand Geology, page 204Such a highly destructive mud-flow (termed a lahar) eventually stops as a pile of debris of all shapes and sizes, as mixed up as a glacial moraine; the two deposits have often been confused.
• 2000, Jacques-Marie Bardintzeff & Alexander R. McBirney, Volcanology‎, page 138Pyroclastic flows are often difficult to distinguish in outcrops from a similar type of fragmental debris flow known as lahars. Both are characteristically unstratified and unsorted. A deposit containing blocks of varied compositions with rounded shapes is more likely to have been formed by a lahar than by a glowing avalanche.
• 2006, Andrew J. L. Harris et al., "Downstream aggradation owing to lava dome extrusion and rainfall runoff at Volcán Santiaguito, Guatemala", in William Ingersoll Rose (ed.), Volcanic Hazards in Central America‎, page 86A regime of persistent lahar activity results when eruptive activity continually supplies unconsolidated volcanic material for remobilization.