Vaporization

Vaporization of an element or compound is a phase transition from the liquid phase to gas phase. There are two types of vaporization: evaporation and boiling.

This diagram shows the nomenclature for the different phase transitions.

Evaporation is a phase transition from the liquid phase to gas phase that occurs at temperatures below the boiling temperature at a given pressure. Evaporation usually occurs on the surface.

Boiling is a phase transition from the liquid phase to gas phase that occurs at or above the boiling temperature. Boiling, as opposed to evaporation, occurs below the surface.

Sublimation is a direct phase transition from the solid phase to the gas phase, skipping the intermediate liquid phase.

The term vaporization has also been used to refer to the physical destruction of an object that is exposed to intense heat. As noted in discussions of the effects of nuclear weapons, this includes the vaporization of human bodies by the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the vaporization of the uninhabited Marshall Island of Elugelab in the 1952 Ivy Mike thermonuclear test.