The strongly peralkaline Green Tuff, Pantelleria, is an example of a thin, densely welded air-fall tuff which mantles an area of at least 85 km2. Offshore the tuff is correlated with the Y-6 ash layer in the central Mediterranean Sea, and the total volume of the eruption is estimated at 7 km3 D.R.E. New petrological data suggests that the tuff was erupted from a zoned magma chamber containing a cooler, more fractionated upper zone relative to be bulk of the magma. Analysis of the distribution of accessory lithic fragments in terms of existing models of eruption dynamics indicates emplacement by a plinian-type eruption. It is shown that, due to the low viscosity of pantelleritic ejecta, dense welding can occur at moderate tephra accumulation rates and a rate of the order of 1 cm/minute is suggested for the Green Tuff; this yields an estimate for the eruption duration of rather less than one day. It is predicted that welded tuff should be formed during large plinian eruptions of pantelleritic magma, and therefore that welded airfall tuffs should be common in areas of peralkaline volcanism.