crown fire
1
8.2
- noun
- /kraʊn faɪər/
- Specialized
:
fuego de copa
- For crown fires, other types of disturbance do not appear to influence responsiveness to fire, although fire history may be important.
Examples
-
In the most severely burned areas, where crown fires (fires that consume and spread through the tree crowns) occurred, needles of the canopy trees were completely consumed by fire, and tree mortality was essentially 100%.
Academic text (1997) -
Periodic low-burning fires likewise reduced the potential for destructive crown fires.
Academic text (1995) -
Nearby trees were beginning to catch in a crown fire.
Fiction book (2000) -
When fuels adequate to support a crown fire exist, the cycle is repeated.
Academic text (2002) -
Thus, stands that have burned more frequently in the past may be reforested more rapidly following a crown fire.
Academic text (1997) -
Blackened areas indicate areas of crown fire, brown sections show areas of severe surface burns, and green forest indicates either light surface burns or unburned forest.
Academic text (1997) -
But new developments in the Red Zones are increasingly at elevations above 8,000 feet, in dense forests that are often dominated by lodgepole pine, which tends to burn heavily in "stand-reducing" crown fires.
Blog text (24) -
The forest was devastated by a crown fire that spread rapidly through the treetops.
-
During the dry season, a crown fire can quickly engulf the entire canopy of a forest.
-
The team studied the impact of a crown fire on wildlife habitats after the summer blaze.
How Intense
- Specialized
8
7.5
- Specialized
1
8.2
- Specialized
1
7.1
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a fire spreading through the tops (crowns) of trees' is directly derivable from combining 'crown' (the top part of a tree) with 'fire' (burning). This is a regular noun–noun compound following transparent compositional patterns that are cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely understand it.
Etymology
Crown fire comes from the image of flames running through the crowns of trees, the leafy tops. When fire jumps from treetop to treetop it can move much faster than a ground fire, so the term now means 'a very strong forest fire that spreads quickly'.