Mount Pelee

Story 

     Mount Pelee showed signs of being active way before the 1902 eruptions.  Beginning in April 1902, sulfuric vapors began emerging from the volcano.  The actual eruption happened on May 8th, 1902.  On April 23, the volcano began having minor explosions.  The following days earth tremors began shaking the town of St. Pierre and the town was soon covered in ash and sulfuric gas.  Nighttimes were horrible for the citizens because of the insects and snakes that crawled down from the towering volcano.  Animals were bitten over and over by red ants and around 50 people, along with 200 animals, died from snake bites alone.  A crater lake, known as Etang Sec, was heated that the water was boiling as the volcano was gaining intensity.  This crater rim collapsed on May 5th and created a gigantic mudflow destroying everything in its path.  It killed 23 working people in a rum distillery before running into the ocean creating a 3 meter high tsunami which crashed into the waterfront of St. Pierre. 

     The citizens of St. Pierre were considering leaving St.Pierre after the giant mudslide came through.  Governor Louis Mouttet got a letter from a group of leaders who visited the volcano to see the damage.  This letter said: "there is nothing in the activity of Mt. Pelée that warrants a departure from St. Pierre...the safety of St. Pierre is completely assured."  Some people were reassured, while others decided to leave for Fort-De-France.  The governor told troops to search the roads and order anyone who was leaving to return to St. Pierre. All 28,000 people had no idea of the events that were to happen in the coming days.

     The real catastrophe happened on May 8th, 1902.  The group that visited the volcano didn't see the V-shaped notch on the summit of Mount Pelee.  The volcano erupted at about 7:50 am with a loud boom.  A cloud of hot gas, rocks, and ash rolled toward St. Pierre with hurricane forces.  Within minutes the town was filled with gas.  Bonfires started abruptly from the searing heat, and the heat exploded barrels of rum sending flaming liquid flying through the air in the caotic city.  There were only two known survivors of the 28,000 from St. Pierre.^[1]  The eruption of Mount Pelee in 1902 was a 4 on the Volcanic Explositivity Index, or VEI.  A 4 is in the middle of the VEI because the highest is 8.

Geological Characteristics of Mount Pelee :

     Mount Pelee is a stratovolcano.  It is one of the deadliest stratovolcanoes in the world.  Stratovolcanoes are explosive and intense because of the water that gets pulled under the Earth's crust at subduction zones and mixes with magma.  This then explodes out of the volcano violently.  The explosion of Mount Pelee in 1902 was one of the deadliest explosions in the 20th century.  Pyroclastic flows are a main part of deaths from this volcano.  These flows are currents of gas and rock that move quickly away from the volcano at speeds of 700 km/h.  This flows travel closely to the ground and roll away from the volcano. 

Martinique is located in the Caribbean

     Mount Pelee is the result of a subduction zone.  It lies in Martinique where the Caribbean Plate and the South American Plate form a convergent boundary.  This is the result of compression.  The boundary near Mount Pelee is an oceanic:oceanic convergent plate boundary.  These boundaries form island arcs, much like the island arc Lesser Antilles. Mount Pelee is located in Martinique in the Caribbean. ^[2]

Mount Pelee is near an oceanic-oceanic convergant boundary with the South Amercan Plate and the Caribbean Plate on the island arc Lesser Antilles.

      Some parts of St. Pierre were restored, but St. Pierre hasn't been fully restored at this moment in time.  As of 2010, Mount Pelee sits quietly in St. Pierre, Martinique.  Looking at the West Indies, Mount Pelee is one of the most active.  People have said that it is likely that the volcano will soon erupt again.  When the volcano has anymore spurts of gas or small explosions, then the people of St. Pierre won't look at it as nothing.  Any future activity will most likely mean that the volcano will erupt in the near future. 

This was all that remained of St. Pierre after Mount Pelee exploded on May 8th, 1902.