Vulcanian

Adjective

Vulcanian (not comparable)

1. (Roman) Of, related to, or created by Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalwork, considered equivalent to the Greek Hephaestus and several German and Celtic gods.
   • ...Nor cou'd Vulcanian Flame
     The Stench abolish; or the Savour tame...1697, John Dryden translating Vergil as Georgics, Book III, in The Works of Virgil, p. 121
2. (archaic, historical) Of or related to former theories attributing the origin of basalt and other crystalline minerals to subterranean fires.
   • In his six lectures on Volcanos, [Faujas] exhausted the subject, and showed us the difference of the several systems, the Vulcanian, the Neptunian, and the Huttonian, which is the Plutonian, and his own opinion.1803, Stephen Weston, Praise of Paris, page 58
   • The Vulcanian or Plutonian theory, which ascribes the changes on earth's surface to the agency of fire.1870, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, page 939

   Synonyms:

   Plutonian, volcanian

3. (archaic) Of or related to volcanic eruptions or phases of a volcanic eruption when repeated explosions produce a thick ash cloud.
   • Just as we have the ‘Plinian’ or ‘Vesuvian’ eruptions of Vesuvius accompanied by violent outbursts of ‘ashes’ and welling out of lava, and the incessant, milder ‘Strombolian’ type of eruption, so we may distinguish a ‘Vulcanian’ type.1892 June 2, Nature, page 118
4. Of or related to the proposed planet Vulcan or a cluster of asteroids at the same location in the Solar System.