The word pyroclast is derived from the Greek , meaning "fire", and , meaning "broken in pieces". A name for some pyroclastic flows is nuée ardente (French for "burning cloud"); this was first used to describe the disastrous 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on Martinique. In the dark, these pyroclastic flows glowed red. A pyroclastic flow is a type of gravity current; in scientific literature they are sometimes abbreviated to PDC (pyroclastic density current).