Verneshot

English

Alternative forms
  • verneshot

Etymology

From Verne +‎ shot. Coined by geophysicist Jason Phipps Morgan. Named after French author Jules Verne, who wrote about a projectile escaping Earth's gravity (in the novel From the Earth to the Moon), which Morgan connected to his idea of an eruption launching material into a suborbital trajectory.

Noun

Verneshot (plural Verneshots)

  1. (volcanology) A hypothetical volcanic eruption event, caused by a buildup of gas, which launches material from the crust and mantle into a suborbital trajectory, leading to further damage as it crashes back to the surface.
    • 2005, Andy Turnbull, We Need to Talk about the future of Canada, →ISBN, page 43:
      They suggest that the Chicxulub crater — generally believed to be evidence of a meteorite impact that killed the dinosaurs — was actually caused by debris from a “Verneshot” explosion in India, and  […]
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Verneshot.
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