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Explosive volcanic eruptions commonly form sustained Plinian columns that collapse at some stage producing dangerous pyroclastic density currents (PDC) on the ground. Numerical and laboratory models of volcanic plumes show that the conditions leading to total column collapse are strongly controlled by the amount of exsolved gas at the source and the mass eruption rate. However, column collapse is rarely total and the volcanic jet often separates in a dense collapsing part feeding PDC and a buoyant rising plume spreading volcanic gases and pyroclasts in the atmosphere. This transitional regime has been directly observed and/or inferred from the structure of the deposits for several past eruptions, but the number of cases for which the partial collapse regime is described in detail, including the 79 CE Vesuvius, and the 186 CE Taupo eruptions, remains too small to fully constrain physical models. Here, we …