1. The 1902
Eruption of
Mount Pelee in
Martinique
By: Sabella Aundraya
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

2. Physical Features
• Has an elevation of 4,583 feet (1,397
metres).
• Pelée is made of layers of volcanic ash
and hardened lava.
• The volcano is cone shaped.
• It has a base of about 39 square miles.
• In October 1902 (post eruption) a pillar of
cooled lava arose, which was pushed up by
the pressure in the volcano. This lava
dome, called the tower of Pelée, was 100
to 150 metres wide. At the top the dome
was approximately 300 metres above the
edge of the crater. The tower was not
stable enough and in september 1903 it
collapsed.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

3. Where is Mount Pelée?
• Mount Pelée is on the northern
end of the French Caribbean
island Martinique.
• Mount Pelée is the result of a
subduction zone. The
subduction formed the Lesser
Antilles island arc, a curved
chain of volcanoes
approximately 850 kilometres
(530 miles) in length, between
Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

4. When Did The Eruption
Take Place?
• The eruption its self happened on May 8, 1902 at 7:52am, however there were several warning signs:
• April 2 - Puffs of steam were seen coming from high up the mountain.
• April 23 - A small amount of ash from Mount Pelée fell over St.Pierre, followed by mild tremors.
• April 25 - The second crater near the summit opened up, spewing ash and rock fragments.
• All through the rest of April Pelée continued to spew clouds of ash, and the sulphurous gas fumes
became more frequent.
• May 2 - Late at night the mountain gave a series of explosions.
• May 6 - Eruptions could be clearly be heard 100 miles away on the island of Guadeloupe. Steam
covered the summit of Pelée, and ash fell down, covering everything with up to a foot of ash. About 5
p.m., telegraphic communication was broken between Martinique and the islands of St. Vincent and
St. Lucia (undersea avalanches had snapped the cables).
• May 7 - At 4 a.m.the citizens observed two fiery craters near the summit. When daylight came, it
appeared the entire Caribbean was littered with chunks of ash, pumice and vegetation swept into the
sea by the flooding rivers. Some say it appeared that the ships were sailing on soggy ground.
• After the eruption - It erupted again a few more times, but it caused no damage because there wasn't
anything left to destroy.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

5. What Happened?
When Mount Pelee erupted it started with three or four
quick, violent explosions. Then two enormous black
clouds of volcanic material shot out from the mountain.
One cloud went straight up into the sky, where it
expanded across the whole sky. It blocked out light so
severely that people in Fort-de-France, twelve miles away,
could not see two feet in front of them. The other cloud
didn't rise like the first, but ran down the slope of Mount
Pelee directly for St. Pierre. This cloud moved at a speed
approximately 100 miles per hour, in about two minutes it
impacted the city with an incredible force. The buildings
were quickly blown down and scattered into rubble. The
cloud, a “nuée ardente” or pyroclastic flow - a mixture of
gas, steam, glowing dust, ash and pumice, set the
wreckage of St. Pierre on fire as it swept over the city. The
whole area was destroyed at 7:52 a.m. That time can
established, because the hands on the clock on the wall of
the hospital were frozen on that time. There was no lava
flows from Mount Pelee because it is not a fire volcano.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

6. Who Did Mount Pelee
Affect?
• Before the eruption there was about 30,000 people in
the city of St. Pierre that had either decided not to leave
or could not leave for whatever reason.
• After the eruption there was 2 survivors left in the city.
• There are volcanos that have killed more people
however most of those people died form chain
reactions, in the case of Mount Pelee, the majority of
the people that died, died from the volcano directly.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

7. The Survivors
• One was a shoemaker, named Leon Compere-
Leandre, who owes his life to the fact that his
house was located near the edge of the path of the
cloud of ash, steam and gasses.
• The other was a convect serving time in the St.
Pierre dungeon, his name was Auguste Ciparis
(picture on right side). His cell was poorly
ventilated due to only having one grated “window”
above the door. However when he was found a few
days later, he was severely burned and immediately
put into critical condition. After he healed he was
given a pardon and became sort of famous
because he joined the circus and was known as
“The Prisoner of St. Pierre.”
• Some people tried to escape on boats however
most of the people died from the heat and debris,
out of the few survivors there was, they were all
extremely burned.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

8. What Caused Mount
Pelee to Erupt?
• Scientists never really found out what caused
Mount Pelee to Erupt in the first place but
they did find some other interesting things.
• Alfred Lacroix, a scientist who spent a year in
Martinique doing research on the volcano,
discovered the uncommon phenomenon of a
"nuée ardente" (the black volcanic cloud
which was released by the eruption of the
Mount Pelée) can be caused by a sideward
eruption of volcanic material.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

9. Tectonic Plates
• Mount Pelee was formed in a subduction zone.
That is when an oceanic crust (in this case the
Cocos plate) collides with continental crust
(Caribbean plate), the continental crust is pushed
over the oceanic crust, since it is lighter. When the
oceanic crust is submerged beneath the
continental crust, the crust is pushed down into the
lava of the lithosphere, and is eventually melted.
This excess lava is then pushed up through gaps in
the continental crust, therefore forming volcanoes
(or stratovolcanoes) like Mount Pelee.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

10. How did the Eruption of
Mount Pelee Affect the
Earth’s Crust?
• There was no lava flow from
the eruption and there for no
new igneous rock was
formed. However there was a
lot of ash and debris, so that
could have formed into
sedimentary rock on the
earths crust.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

11. Bibliography
• http://library.thinkquest.org/26568/pelee.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pel%C3%A9e
• http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Pelee.html
• http://www.platetectonics.com/book/page_5.asp
• http://www.gweaver.net/techhigh/projects/period1_2/Mt.%20Pelee/plate
%20tectonics%20page.html
• http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcmartinique.htm
• http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/sciences/earthscience/geology/volcanoes/
power/mountpelee.html
• http://library.thinkquest.org/17457/volcanoes/effects.pelee.php
• http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/apr/28/physicalsciences.highereducation
Tuesday, June 11, 2013