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All about Mount Pelée

Martinique on Wikipedia

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View from Mt. Pelée

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View from a theatre that was set to open in 1902

Plinian versus Peléan

The eruption styles of Mount. Pelée have alternated between Plinian and Peléan. This is believed to be due to venting of gases just prior to the volcanic eruption.

Plinian Volcanic eruptions occur suddenly after a long period of with volcanoes that have highly viscous magma that contains a high density of gas. The eruption's genesis is within the base of volcanoes, along with the build up of gas causes and the crater pipe also with in the volcano functions similar to the barrel of a shotgun. the enormous gas escape shoots upwards with a great deal of velocity creating enormous ash cloud. Additionally, Plinian products have vesicularities and show esolved water, which is in accord with close system near equilibrium degassing up to fragmentation (Fischer).

Peléan eruptions, which are named after Mount. Pelée, are caused in strato volcanoes, with magma that has high degree of silica. The features that distinguish it from plinian are the nuée ardentes. Also, low vesicularities, low residual water contents and extensive groundmass crystallization in the Peléan products are the direct result of extensive open air venting that takes place before an eruption. (Fischer)

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Ruins of a theatre that was set to open in 1902.

Picture of the cell of one two survivors of the May 8th eruption of Mt. Pelée, Cyparis, who was imprisoned at the time of the eruption.

Auguste Cyparis, a young labourer was locked up on the evening of 7 May for his part in a brawl. As the pyroclastic flow destroyed the city, he was badly burned by hot ashes that entered his cell but survived as those in St. Pierre suffocated. Released three days later by a search party, he spent much of his remaining life traveling Barnum & Bailey circus, exhibiting his scars as 'The Wonder of St Pierre'. (Ferguson)

Mount Pelée &

St. Pierre

Mountain Pelée is located on the French department of Martinique: an island located in the lesser Antilles. The lush green mountain that accentuates the rest of the tropical paradise that is Martinique (Island of Flowers) is 1080 km high and is the point on the island. The "bald mountain," Mountain Pelée is famous for its eruption on May 8th, 1902, that created a Nuée Ardente (glowing avalanches), which destroyed the city and former capital of St. Pierre, killing nearly all of its 28,000 residents.

Mount Pelée is part of an island arc which is composed of volcanoes that are located at the point where the Caribbean tectonic plate meets the Atlantic plate. Other volcanoes of similar eruption style and location are Saint-Vincent's Soufriere, Guadeloupe's Soufriere, Montserrat's Soufriere Hills, and Kick' Em Jenny, a submarine volcano. (Lesales)

Originally, Mount Pelée was believed to be an extinct volcano, having not illustrated any signs of activity for several years. The volcano woke up on April 25, 1902, when a series of small explosion occurred causing lahars to descend down the mountain and eventually led up to the eruption on May 8th of 1902.

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St. Pierre

The French first colonized the island in 1632; by 1692 it had become the capital of the French colony, which included the rest of the French West Indies. St. Pierre developed successfully because of the hills and the volcano that protected the city from trade winds that blew over the island. (Scarth)

Martinique with its rich volcanic soil and agreeable weather; has been home to various types of agriculture including sugar can production, tobacco farming and a plethora of native plants and flowers.

In addition to being the capital of the colony St. Pierre also served as the capital of culture, religion, industry in addition to being the intellectual capital of the West Indies. The buildings in the city were constructed from volcanic rubble and ash. Most of the walls were about one meter thick. The streets of St. Pierre were also created using volcanic rock. (Scarth)

May 8th Eruption

On May 8th, 1902, Mt. Pelée exploded killing almost all of the thirty thousand residents of St. Pierre in addition to destroying the city within a matter of minutes.
“ On the afternoon of May 8(Thursday) we noticed a peculiar haze in the direction of Martinique. The air seemed heavy and oppressive. The weather conditions were not at all unlike those which precede the great West Indian hurricanes, but knowing that season of the year for them, we all remarked that there must be a heavy storm approaching. SO peculiar was the atmosphere that we talked of nothing else during the evening. Toward Martinique there was a very black sky, an unusual thing at this time of year.

-Billy Anderson who was on the Horace, which was on route from the Barbados to St. Lucia and Island just north of Martinique the day of the eruption: excerpted from The Last Days of St. Pierre.

The cloud of pyroclastic debris created by the eruption was estimated to have measured between 200 and 450 degrees Celsius and moved at a speed of approximately 300 km per hour when it engulfed the city of St. Pierre. (Marshank 185) The nuée ardente reached the city of St. Pierre at 8:02 am and by 8:05 am the city was completely destroyed (Scarth). An area of 20 square kilometers was totally flattened in a conflagration that's power was equivalent to several atomic explosions. Photographs from the period show a shattered landscape eerily similar to that of Hiroshima. (Ferguson)

Picture by Mary Rice

Warnings

Several months leading up to the eruption the strong scent of sulphur had been noticed coming the Rivière Blanche, which flows down from the volcano. Additionally tremors coming form the base of the volcano were also recorded. Two boiling mudslides in the first week of May suggested that a fissure had opened at the volcano's summit, directing red-hot streams of mud both northwards and eastwards. Though covered in ash and suffocating under a pall of sulphur, St Pierre was at least untouched by these flows. (Ferguson)

Aftermath

The 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelée allowed scientist to start understanding and studying Nuée Ardentes.

Additionally the capitol of Martinique was changed to Fort de France.

Bibliography

Ferguson, James. "The tragedy of St. Pierre." Geographical 74 (2002):14-20

Fischer, Tobias. "Volcanoes." Geotimes 46(2001) 15-16

All about Mount Pelée. Thierry Lesales.2005. 2 Mar 2005 <http://www.mount-pelee.com/>.

Marshak, Stephen. Essentials of Geology. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004

Scarth, Alwyn. La Catastrophe. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Zebrowski Jr, Ernest. The Last Days of St. Pierre: the volcanic disaster that claimed thirty thousand lives. New Brunswick, New Jersey and London: Rutgers University Press, 2002.

"Martinique." 28 Feb. 2005 Wikkipedia, the free encyclopedia.27 Mar 2005 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinique>

Link to other Student Webpages for 2005 Earlham Physical Geology

Copyright © 2005 Earlham College. Revised June 28, 2005 . Send corrections or comments to Mary Margaret Rice