The hot rocks and gas quickly melted some of the snow and ice capping the volcano, creating surges of water that eroded and mixed with loose rock debris to form volcanic mudflows (lahars). Several lahars poured down the volcano into river valleys, ripping trees from their roots and destroying roads and bridges.
This is an example of the Kilauea eruption and located in the Hawaiian volcanoes as the stream plums rise as the lava enters the pacific ocean and is a quiet type of the eruption and sets for in everything in its path.
