Montagne Pelée
| Montagne Pelée | ||
|---|---|---|
 The Montagne Pelée with the ruins of the Saint-Pierre theater, which was destroyed in 1902 |
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| height | 1397 m | |
| location | West Indian island of Martinique | |
| Coordinates | 14 ° 48 '47 " N , 61 ° 9' 56" W | |
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| Type | Stratovolcano | |
| rock | Lava and ash layers | |
| Last eruption | 1929 to 1932 | |
The Montagne Pelée [ mɔ'taɲ pə'le ] ( fr. "Bald Mountain"), also Mont Pelé [ mɔ pə'le ] ( fr. "Bald Mountain") is a 1,397-meter-high stratovolcano on to France belonging west Indian island of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles . The island arch volcano is the highest mountain on the island.
Characteristic of the volcano is its viscous, viscous magma , which tends to form plugs and can close the chimneys , resulting in extremely explosive eruptions in the event of new eruptions . These then often break in the simplest way of pressure loss through the flank path. This creates glowing clouds that are several hundred degrees Celsius and can reach speeds of up to 800 km / h and slide down the slopes. The climax of the internationally sensational phase of activity between 1902 and 1905 was the extraordinarily violent and momentous eruption on May 8, 1902, which was the 20th century with the most casualty losses worldwide and was recorded on the Volcano Explosivity Index (VEI) with a level of 4. During the lateral eruption, the island's capital, Saint-Pierre, seven kilometers from the summit by the sea, was completely destroyed, with estimates estimated to have killed between 28,000 and 40,000 people. Since the last eruption period between 1929 and 1932, the volcano has been inactive and a popular tourist destination. The investigations of the 1902 eruption resulted in extensive scientific monitoring of the mountain and is now considered the beginning of modern volcanology .
Topographical and geological classification
At 1,397 meters, Mont Pelé, at the northern end of Martinique, is the highest point on the island. It is one to the summit covered, large mountain Stock , who primarily from jungvulkanischem conglomerate and pumice - tuff is composed. The volcano is located at an interface between the continental South American and North American plates and the predominantly oceanic Caribbean plate , i.e. at a so-called triple junction , and is a typical representative of an island arc volcano . This arc spans more than 850 kilometers from Puerto Rico in the north down to Venezuela and has other well-known volcanoes , for example the Soufrière on St. Vincent and the Soufrière Hills on Montserrat .
Decisive for the activities of Mont Pelé is the subduction of the South American plate, which pushes under the Caribbean at up to two centimeters per year. However, since the exact boundary between the North and South American plates in the Atlantic Ocean is undefined, it is unclear whether both might not also dive under the small plate. The wedge above the plate kink is then melted due to fluids that escape from the crust portion of this plate into the mantle. The resulting magma has a lower density than the surrounding mantle rock and rises vertically due to the buoyancy. It looks for a way to the surface of the earth. This constellation is remarkable because the oceanic plate, which is always denser and therefore heavier, is usually pushed under a continental one.
The Mont Pelé is the eponymous volcano for the Pelean eruption, one of the most dangerous and unpredictable of the nine main types of eruption. It is characterized by a very high viscosity of the rising magma. This can often harden during the ascent and close the main chimney in the form of a plug for subsequent outbreaks. As a result, the volcanic fluids and gases look for side vents and cracks in the rock and often break under high pressure laterally in the form of glowing clouds through the slopes of the mountain. These pelée dynamics belong to the group of dynamics bound to gases (in contrast to dynamics bound to water) and can also have the effect that thick lava is deposited immediately as soon as it reaches the earth's surface and forms semi-stable lava domes at the exit points . When these collapse, pyroclastic currents form on the mountain slopes .
Geological evolution
Geological formation
Volcanic activity in Martinique has existed for around 300,000 years. Volcanologists now divide the geological formation history of the mountain into three different phases. The beginning of this classification is the stage in which the Mont Pelé was still an ordinary stratovolcano with a Plinian eruption pattern and was much higher in height than it is today. Its slopes were formed by lahars , lava flows and small-scale volcanic deposits. This initial mountain was later named Paléo-Pelée and the remains of this stage can still be seen on the north and west flanks.
The so-called intermediate phase began a good 100,000 years ago after a long period of seismic calm. In the course of this phase the Morne-Macouba lava dome was formed and later, through a large eruption, the Morne-Macouba caldera was formed when the entire summit region collapsed above the emptied magma chamber and the mountain lost a large part of its height. There were further eruptions, as a result of which numerous pyroclastic currents formed. Almost 25,000 years ago, the southwest flank slid in a huge landslide , which, according to measurements , must have been comparable to the collapse of the northern slope of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
The last and still ongoing phase started about 13,000 years ago and is decisive for the current deposits in the summit region of pumice and pyroclastics . More than 30 eruptions have been proven over the past 5000 years. One of the most serious was an enormous pumice eruption 3000 years ago that formed the Caldera Étang Sec (French: dry pond ). The phases of activity from 1902 to 1905 and 1929 to 1932 filled this caldera with two large lava domes, some of which collapsed again, but still form the peak of the volcano today.
Activities until 1889
The first documented eruption of Mont Pelé dates from 1630; however, it was only a light eruptive activity. Five years later, in 1635, a severe eruption caused extensive devastation of the mountain slopes. Because of this, the volcano got its name.
Alfred Lacroix researched the history of the volcano after 1902 and found evidence of a small phreatic explosion on January 22, 1792. Although it was only 110 years ago at that time, none of the residents of Martinique had knowledge of this phase of activity. Only one eyewitness known as "Citizen Dupuguet" published a report in 1795 in the Journal des Mines . Accordingly, the eruption was followed by a strong earthquake, while an intense smell of sulfur compounds hung in the valleys around the mountain. The mineral had also settled on ferns and rocks. Dupuguet reports that the earth was torn open in several places and countless trees were burned. There were no human losses, but numerous birds and 19 possums perished .
In 1851, Mont Pelée, which was not considered a threat at the time, again showed signs of light activity. On August 5, around 11 p.m., a dull, distant rumble was heard in the settlements, which intensified and continued for a long time. Residents from Prêcheur and Saint-Pierre fled to the city's churches. In the days that followed, the island's authorities set up a scientific commission that climbed and examined the slopes in search of the eruptive site. It turned out that there was probably another phreatic explosion above the Rivière Claire on the western flank. The vegetation was destroyed and the area was covered by a thin layer of ash. In addition, the scientists registered an aggressive smell of sulfur compounds and escaping vapors that darkened the sky. Two large mud pots were found at an altitude of 965 meters . Volcanic activity continued at a low level until it came to a complete calm in the first half of 1852. The most comprehensive source of this small outbreak is a report by the Commission, which was intended to dispel the insecurity in the population and to reassure local residents. It was published in the island's official gazette. The results highlight the lack of knowledge about the geological nature of the volcano. The report said that no lava or volcanic bombs had been found; Mud and ash were the only ejections from the mountain. Accordingly, it should be classified as a mud volcano and not a fire volcano, since the previous eruption was probably of the same type. Even after intensive investigations, there were no cracks, landslides or changes in water and the area of damage was extremely limited. The researchers were certain that Saint-Pierre and Prêcheur would not have to fear much larger outbreaks. The nature of the area surrounding the eruptive zone and the erosion in the Rivière Blanche gorge would create a natural drainage path for the mud into the sea. The farmers in the surrounding villages should return and start working in the fields again. You should not be unsettled by the eruptive noises that occur from time to time and the persistent smell of hydrogen sulfide . Finally, in the published report, the commission came to the conclusion that Mont Pelé was just another natural historical curiosity of the island that visitors would certainly like to see. The business acumen of the residents could turn the volcano into a source of wealth and health. The passengers of incoming ships from France, who could see the high white column of smoke in the sky from afar, would consider them a picturesque decoration of the island as well as a completion of the majesty of the mountain. Nowadays it is assumed that this soothing report, in which - probably out of ignorance - the actual danger posed by the mountain was not pointed out, was one of the main reasons for the high number of victims in 1902. The inhabitants of the volcanic region underestimated the seriousness of the situation and relied on the findings of the scientific commission 50 years ago.
The big breakout
The first harbingers of the volcano's reawakening were fumaroles observed at the summit in 1889. In January 1902 these intensified; In addition, farmers on the western flank of the mountain smelled hydrogen sulfide and found several dead cattle and birds. On April 23, 1902, the volcano ejected some slag for the first time, accompanied by gentle tremors . A day later there was a small phreatic eruption. Along with a slight earthquake, a thin cloud of steam and ash rose over the mountain. The everyday life of the population was hardly affected by this event. Similar activities had already taken place in 1792 and 1851, so they did not receive much attention. When an ash rain fell over Saint-Pierre on April 26th, a small expedition to the summit was organized for the following day, April 27th. The participants saw that the 180-meter-wide side crater Étang Sec, the caldera that was formed in the pumice eruption 3000 years earlier, was filled with boiling water. In Terre Fendue ( French : cracked earth ), the area between Étang Sec and the small main crater lake Lac des Palmistes, they noticed steam rising from numerous cracks and crevices in the rock. While the expedition was still on the way, the inhabitants of Saint-Pierre smelled sulfur in the city for the first time. Three days later, it was April 30th, the rivers Roxelane and Rivière des Peres, flowing down from the mountain slopes, overflowed their banks and carried numerous tree trunks and boulders from higher altitudes with them. On the same day, an ash shower fell over Le Prêcheur, a neighboring town of Saint-Pierre, and St. Philomène.
Another eruption occurred on May 2nd at 11:30 a.m. A large cloud of black ash rose and it rained fine pumice over almost the entire north half of the island , while Le Prêcheur was exposed to another shower of ash, which caused part of the population to flee to Saint-Pierre. The first farm animals on the slopes of the mountain died as the ashes contaminated their feed . The daily Les Colonies announced to postpone a planned for May 4 mountain picnic, and from the Italian Naples native Marino Leboffe, captain in the harbor Frachtbark Lolina the shipping company Pollio Fratelli SRL, expressed his concern about an impending outbreak:
“I don't know anything about Mont Pelée, but if Vesuvius looked like your mountain this morning, I would leave Naples. And I'm getting out of here. "
As a result, he cast off with his crew, although the ship was only half loaded with sugar. The customs inspectors present threatened him with a prison sentence and the loss of his captain's license, but Leboffe replied, “Who will impose them on me? Tomorrow you will all be dead. ”On the following night of May 3rd, a Saturday, the large coastal city was also covered by a thin layer of ash. The ongoing ash falls finally cut the telegraph connection to Le Prêcheur. At the Guérin sugar factory , about 3.2 km northwest of Saint-Pierre, thousands of ants and centipedes were seen crawling out of the earth. Employees reported that the horses had been attacked. At the same time, hundreds of poisonous lance snakes ( Bothrops lanceolatus ), endemic to Martinique , appeared in the streets of Saint-Pierre . They too had fled from the troubled mountain. According to eyewitness reports, around 50 people and around 200 pets were killed by their bites. Two days later, on Monday 5th May, the edge of the Étang Sec collapsed on the summit of Mont Pelé. The crater lake poured over the slopes. A mud flow developed that swelled the Rivière Blanche very strongly. The sugar factory at the point where it flows into the sea was destroyed and buried under a six-meter-high layer of mud. 25 to 150 people were killed. When the mud reached the harbor, a small tidal wave formed, which, although not causing any damage, caused panic among the population for the first time. The newspapers now warned of an imminent eruption, and the next day, May 6, around 2,000 residents of Saint-Pierre left the city despite the mayor's appeasement slogans, while several thousand came to the city from nearby places near the volcano.
The night of May 7th was marked by an eruption thunderstorm that residents of the volcano could observe. Otherwise everything remained calm. Although a lava dome bulged slightly out of the Étang Sec during the day, which also collapsed in small parts and triggered harmless pyroclastic flows , a so-called scientific commission came to the conclusion after climbing the summit that “Mont Pelée was not a major threat to the inhabitants of Saint-Pierre represents Vesuvius for those of Naples. ”The words came from the only scientist in this group, Gaston Landes, professor at the Lyceum (ie actually teacher at a girls' high school ) in Saint-Pierre. When the news arrived that the Soufrière volcano had erupted on the neighboring island of St. Vincent (around 1,680 people died in this eruption), the inhabitants of Martinique believed themselves safe in the belief that the earth had now calmed down and that theirs was in danger own island is over. Nevertheless, hundreds (other sources speak of thousands) of the hinterland residents sought shelter in Saint-Pierre for the night. As a result, the population increased significantly.
Eruption on May 8, 1902
On the morning of May 8th, Ascension Thursday , the Telegraph from Saint-Pierre sent reports to Fort-de-France and reported a significant intensification of volcanic activity. At 7:52 a.m. the connection was lost. At this time, three severe eruptions shook Mont Pelée, which could still be heard over 600 km away. The southwest flank of the mountain tore open and a cloud of embers was released. At the same time, a Plinian cloud rose from the summit and darkened the sky around the volcano in a radius of 80 kilometers. The glowing cloud, which according to later calculations had a speed of about 670 kilometers per hour, raced towards Saint-Pierre and reached it after just under a minute. The city was completely destroyed, the immense heat burned everything combustible, including rum distilleries and warehouses, which exploded and thus increased the extent of the catastrophe.
When the glowing cloud reached the sea, it began to boil. Thousands of rum barrels intended for export to Europe detonated in the port. The majority of the 18 anchored ships sank or burned, including the Canadian cargo and passenger steamer Roraima of the Québec Line, which had just docked at 6:30 a.m. Of the 68 passengers and crew on board, only 11 survived. Only the crew of the British steamer Roddam managed to get enough distance between themselves and the coast in time. Badly damaged and with the loss of more than half of the people on board, they managed to escape from the port. The purser Thompson who was on board the Roraima later reported:
“The mountain was torn to pieces. There was no warning. The flank of the volcano was torn out and hurled an immense wall of fire straight at us. It sounded like a thousand cannons. The fiery wave fell on us like lightning flashing and passed over us. It was like a hurricane of fire. (...) The fire rolled in full extent directly on St. Pierre and the ships. (...) The firestorm from the volcano lasted only a few minutes. He shrank and set fire to everything he came across. Burning rum trickled down the streets of St. Pierre into the sea. (...) After the explosion, no one was left alive on land. (...) The fire had torn away the masts and chimneys as if they had been cut off with a knife. "
The temperature of the glowing cloud must have been just below the melting point of copper (1084 ° C) because the city's copper telephone wires were not melted. Almost all of the residents of Saint-Pierre were killed in a matter of seconds. A particularly large number died in the churches in which the Ascension masses were taking place. In the first few hours nobody knew what had really happened. Contact with the city was broken and the governor Louis Mouttet (1857-1902) could not be reached. It later emerged that he and his wife had also been in Saint-Pierre. It is still not known exactly how many people were in the place at the time of the eruption. A few thousand holiday guests and refugees must be added to the 28,000 inhabitants. As a result, the number of victims varies between 28,000 and 40,000. The eruption of Mont Pelée devastated an area of 58 square kilometers. The ruins of the city burned to the ground for several days. Due to the enormous heat development, it was initially not possible to approach her.
A few hours before the eruption, the French barque Belem from Le Havre , which still exists today , found no anchorage in the roadstead off Saint-Pierre on the morning of May 8th . The regular seat was occupied by the Tamaya , which initially aroused the displeasure of Captain Julien-Marie Chauvelon. He continued to steer in the direction of Le Robert on the east side of the island. After 30 nautical miles , the Belem found shelter from the volcano in a bay. It thus escaped destruction, but had to be cleaned of ash deposits before continuing.
Survivors
On land, only three residents of Saint-Pierre survived the volcanic eruption. The young shoemaker Léon Compère-Léandre (1874–1936) was at the entrance to the village at the time of the arrival of the glowing cloud and was able to save himself seriously injured in the higher village of Fonds-Saint-Denis. Havivra Da Ifrile, a young girl, was on her way to the cathedral when her mother told her to run some errands in her aunt's pastry shop. This shop was next to a small old crater of the volcano. When she got to it, she noticed smoke rising from the crater, looked inside, and discovered seething magma. Then she ran to the coast, got on her brother's boat and managed to sail to a rock grotto that she knew from playing. As she sat in the safe grotto, she heard a hissing noise as the glowing cloud reached the sea. The last thing she remembered before she passed out was a rapid surge in water. She was later found floating in her boat two miles offshore by the French steamer Suchet and rescued. Louis-Auguste Cyparis is considered to be the most famous survivor today . At the time of the eruption, the sailor was a prisoner in a prison cell, the mighty walls of which protected him. After his pardon, he toured the United States with a circus and became a celebrity.
Behavior of the authorities
In retrospect, both islanders and various eyewitnesses expressed massive criticism of the city authorities. They would have had to react much earlier to the first signs of volcanic activity and evacuate the areas around the mountain . One of the reasons for the failure to take this measure, which cannot be proven, but was often quoted, was the district elections. The first ballot on April 27, 1902 was unsuccessful and the second was scheduled for May 11. It is possible that politicians deliberately downplayed the risk for reasons of election tactics in order to keep as many potential voters as possible in the city. The only residents who could afford to flee the island by boat were the wealthy voters of the Mouttets Progressive Party. He feared for his votes and influenced the conservative editor of Les Colonies to downplay the volcanic activities. However, in the run-up to the outbreak, numerous Saint-Pierre residents traveled to Fort-de-France, where the governor then dispatched guards and guards to calm people fleeing from Saint-Pierre, persuade them to return and send them back. On the day of the eruption, the opposing candidates Fernand Clerc and Louis Percin left the city just in time at 6:30 a.m. and survived the disaster.
After the death of the governor of Saint-Pierre, the lieutenant-governor was responsible for initial crisis relief and also issued the order for the extensive evacuation of the settlements near Mont Pelé.
Finds
Although the city was completely destroyed, numerous damaged everyday objects were recovered from the ruins of Saint-Pierre in the months after the eruption. The found objects included a melted perfume bottle, the remains of a mousetrap , a melted wine bottle, melted cutlery, melted coins, melted iron nails, glass melted beyond recognition, a crushed candlestick, an angel figure made of corroded metal, several statuettes cracked from the heat, a fused pocket watch that had stopped at 8:15 a.m., porcelain plates with ash particles melted in the glaze, charred food ( plums , spaghetti , coffee beans ), a charred mug, a melted medicine bottle, an iron crucifix , whose wooden cross was burned, as well as a charred human hip joint . These and many other objects such as the deformed and melted church tower bell are exhibited in the Musée Franck A. Perret in Saint-Pierre.
Immediately off the coast there are still numerous wrecks at a depth of 60 meters, including that of the Roraima .
Relation to other outstanding eruption events
After the introduction of the logarithmic volcanic explosion index (VEI) by Chris Newhall and Steve Self in 1982, the great eruption of Mont Pelé on May 8, 1902 was classified as a magnitude 4 eruption. This is an average value, the intensity of which is set as “large” and which has so far been assigned to 307 outbreaks in the Holocene .
The eruption produced approximately 0.5 cubic kilometers of ash and rock, which is relatively little compared to other large eruptions. In October of the same year the Guatemalan Santa María emitted more than 5.5 km³ of tephra (VEI 6) and the Novarupta ten years later twelve to 15 km³ (VEI 6). The eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 (VEI 5), which was followed internationally with great media interest and also widely described by popular science, produced 1.2 km³, slightly more than twice the amount of ash of Mont Pelés, as did El Chichón 1982 (VEI 4) . When the Pinatubo in the Philippines exploded in mid-June 1991 with a VEI value of 6, the mass emission was between seven and ten cubic kilometers, which makes it one of the most powerful of the past century. The most intense volcanic eruption of the 21st century to date is also higher than Mont Pelé: The Chaitén in Chile emitted between four and five cubic kilometers of ash between May 2, 2008 and May 5, 2009 and is listed with VEI 5.
In terms of the number of victims, however, the outbreak on May 8th with at least 29,000 deaths is the most loss-making in the 20th century. The only other volcano that came close to this mark was the Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia , whose lahars wiped out two cities in 1985. The exact number of victims is also unknown in this case, but is usually given as 23,000. If you refer to deaths that are directly related to eruptive activities - for example, glowing avalanches, ash rain, lava flows, gas leaks and the like - no volcanic activity claimed more human lives than those on the Montagne Pelée in the entire 19th century. The more than 36,000 victims of Krakatau in 1883 are mostly attributable to the tsunami triggered by its eruption, and the Tambora eruption in 1815 - the most serious in modern times - killed at least 56,000 people, most of whom, however, led to famine in the weeks after the outbreak succumbed.
further activities
Between May and July the volcano was still very active with several powerful eruptions. After the main eruption on May 8, larger parts of the lava dome , which had already been spotted on May 7, broke off and triggered pyroclastic currents, for example on May 20, when the last remaining buildings in Saint-Pierre were destroyed and on June 6th and July 9th. All currents flowed off in the direction of the former island capital. At the end of July the intensity of the activities slackened, which is why the governor decided to send the refugees back - not least because there were fears of epidemics in the mostly overcrowded refugee camps. Strongly increased volcanic activity was registered again at the end of August. However, there were no further evacuations, as it was assumed that any pyroclastic currents, like their predecessors, would flow west or south-west into areas that were already depopulated after the great eruption. On August 30, 1902, however, part of the lava dome collapsed and triggered a current that, although not the size of the previous one, rolled over the southeastern flanks. In Morne Rouge, the next largest city in the area, 800 people lost their lives, in L'Ajoupa-Bouillon 250 people died, in Basse-Pointe 25 and in the village of Morne-Capot ten people. This last deadly activity of Mont Pelés to date devastated an area of 56 square kilometers.
In October 1902, a rock needle formed in the Étang Sec as the superficially solidified tip of a pressed lava column. It grew very quickly, sometimes up to 15 meters a day, and reached a maximum height of 211 and a diameter of 160 meters at the base. The needle was roughly the volume of the Great Pyramid and collapsed in stages between July 6 and August 10, 1903. In their place a lava dome grew at the same place, which was crowned by a steep spike, the top of which was 1479 meters above sea level in September 1904, but only 1458 meters at the end of October of the same year. The last small eruption of its three-year phase of activity since 1902 had Mont Pelé on July 4, 1905.
The volcano had its last phase of activity to date (February 2019) in the years 1929 to 1932. First a new lava dome formed in the Étang Sec and from March 1929 an unusually increased fumarole activity could be observed in the summit region. On the morning of August 16, a steam explosion occurred and a small cloud of ash rose from the crater, while light ash rain fell on the lee side of the mountain. In addition, there were some landslides in the summit region. The intensity of the volcanic activity increased further in the following weeks and on September 16, sudden eruptions prompted the authorities to evacuate all the villages on the mountain. The population was allowed to return at the beginning of October. A much stronger eruption in the early morning hours of October 14th caused intense ash rain in the village of Prêcheur and four days later, on October 18, another one covered the western flanks of the Montagne Pelée. A first pyroclastic flow from the new cathedral broke off on October 22nd and reached the sea via the valley of the Rivière Blanche after just ten minutes. There was a further increase in activity, but with decreasing intensity. This three-year eruptive phase, of which all pyroclastic currents flowed over the Rivière Blanche and which is mainly responsible for the current appearance of the mountain, ended in December 1932. It resulted in no fatalities. However, numerous farm animals perished on the slopes and a road between Saint-Pierre and Prêcheur was destroyed.
On June 19 and 20, 2010, two large, non-volcanic lahars fell in the Rivière du Prêcheur valley , destroying roads and bridges, but not causing human sacrifice. They were triggered when there was a landslide on the Samperre, a mountain above the Rivière du Prêcheur, which is formed by partly loosely stratified eruption rock from Mont Pelé .
Exploration and monitoring
The eruption of Mont Pelé on May 8, 1902 and in particular the investigation of the causes of the lateral eruption are considered to be the hour of birth of modern volcanology , as they aroused the interest of numerous well-known international scientists and the eruption was the first volcanic eruption to be comprehensively researched and analyzed.
One of the first on-site documentators was the naturalist and photographer Angelo Heilprin , who just a few months after the eruption, a famous photo series of the ruins of Saint-Pierre, the devastated slopes of the mountain, the volcanic activities and the rock and lava formations in the summit region made. As early as May 16, 1902, the American geophysicist Thomas A. Jaggar (1871–1953) arrived at Mont Pelé along with other scientists and journalists from New York City . Shocked by the extent of the destruction, he devoted himself intensively to volcanic research in the following years with the aim of developing protective measures for local residents. In 1912 he founded the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory , which he subordinated to the motto “Ne plus haustae aut obrutae urbes” ( de .: “Cities should never be destroyed again”). In June the geologist Alfred Lacroix traveled to Martinique on the official order of the French government and carried out extensive studies until September 1903. He was the first to recognize the volcanic phenomenon of the scorching hot lateral, partially gaseous eruption cloud and called it nuée ardente ( de .: ember cloud ). Together with Jaggar, he classified the type of eruption as a pelean eruption and recognized for the first time the need for permanent monitoring of the volcano. To ensure this, he had two monitoring stations built during his stay on the island, one on the east coast in Assier and one on the Morne-des-Cadets in Fonds-Saint-Denis. Lacroix published several books in France about the results of his research.
After the end of eruptive activity in 1905, however, interest in exploring the volcano waned. This fact, the lack of adequate equipment and gaps in the temporal monitoring of the mountain are the reasons that the main signs of the 1929 eruption initially went unnoticed. During the subsequent eruption phase, the volcanologist Frank A. Perret had a seismograph installed in 1929 and set up a small observation hut on the Morne Lénard above the Rivière Blanche valley in 1931. The seismograph, which is still in operation today, goes back to a design by Auguste Piccard and Alfred de Quervain from 1922. The instrument consists of a 20-ton mass connected to a recording drum anchored in the ground and covered with soot paper. In 1937 the still existing volcano observatory was built on the site of the old Lacroix monitoring station on Morne-des-Cadets. Nowadays, Mont Pelé is one of the best observed and studied volcanoes in the world. The majority of the researchers at the observatory are members of the Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP), which is one of five in the world to manage the station. In addition to seismic investigations, measurements of the deformation of the slopes and hydrogeochemical analyzes to determine the gas concentration and composition in the waters on the mountain are carried out.
tourism
What the scientific commission had hoped for in its investigation report from 1851 has meanwhile become reality: the Montagne Pelée - although not particularly outstanding from an alpine point of view - has developed into an important natural-historical attraction due to its history and is one of the main reasons for many tourists Touring Martinique. Numerous ruins of the old Saint-Pierre can also be visited, such as the theater , the fort church or the Bethlehem nursing home ( French: Asile "Bethléem"). The ships sunk in the harbor or just off the coast, which sank when the glowing cloud reached the sea, are a popular destination for amateur divers and diving tourists.
The mountain can be climbed both with guided tours and independently, primarily between December and April. But even during this time, the top is regularly shrouded in clouds. Climbing on Mont Pelé is classified with difficulty level I (UIAA) . Most often it is climbed from the southeast. This route begins at the parking lot of the first mountain hut (French: Premier Refuge) at 824 meters and leads over the second hut (French: Deuxième Refuge; 1245 m ) and the cone of 1902 ( 1364 m ) to the third hut (French. : Troisième Refuge; 1320 m ) and finally over the cathedral from 1929 to the summit Le Chinois ( 1397 m ). The way back is possible via the caldera . The ascent is also possible from the west. In this case, access is from Quartier du Cimentier near Prêcheur on a narrow and steep concrete road to a small car park at 630 meters above sea level. The subsequent ascent leads directly to the third hut. The pure walking time is about three to six hours, depending on your fitness level, the chosen parking space and the inclusion of the caldera.
literature
- Alfred Lacroix : La Montagne Pelée et ses éruptions. Masson & C ie , Paris 1904.
- Moritz Alphons Stübel : Review of the eruption period of Mont Pelé on Martinique from 1902 to 1903 from a theoretical point of view. Max Weg, Leipzig 1904.
- Edmund Otis Hovey: Mont Pele from October 20, 1903, to May 20, 1904. In: Science , July 1904, Volume 20, Issue 496, pp. 23-24.
- Frank A. Perret : The Eruption of Mont Pelee 1929-1932. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 458, Washington, DC 1935.
- Carl Johnson: volcanoes. Gondrom Verlag, Bindlach 1997, ISBN 3-8112-1564-7 .
- Peter Morgan: Fire Mountain. Bloomsbury Publishing, London 2004, ISBN 0-7475-6843-X .
- JC Noble: Edward William Freeman - A Perfect Captain . JC Noble, Cornwall 2016, ISBN 978-1-326-44850-9 .
- Susanna von Rose: volcanoes. Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim 1997, ISBN 3-8067-4435-1 .
- Daniel Obert: Volcanoes. Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-5671-0 .
- Alwyn Scarth: La Catastrophe. The Eruption of Mount Pelée. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-19-534584-3 .
- Ernest Zebrowski jr .: The Last Days of St. Pierre. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ 2002, ISBN 0-8135-3041-5 .
Filmography
- The cloud of fire from Mont Pelée. Frances Barrigan, 2003: TV documentary about the 1902 eruption
Web links
- Montagne Pelée in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English)
- Matthias Blazek: The eruption of the Montagne Pelée on May 8, 1902 is considered the worst volcanic catastrophe of the 20th century , MyHeimat.de, accessed on March 18, 2018
- V. Camp: Mont Pelée , How Volcanoes Work , Dept. of Geological Sciences, San Diego State University (English)
- "Mont Pelée, Martinique, West Indies" on usgs.gov ( United States Geological Survey ), accessed on February 26, 2010 (English)
- www.mount-pelee.com - Unofficial website of the volcano, accessed on February 26, 2010 (English, French, Spanish)
- "Mt. Pelee, West Indies " at volcano.oregonstate.edu (Volcano World), accessed on February 26, 2010 (English)
- "Exploring St. Pierre's Sunken Ships" on theoceanadventure.com (The Ocean Adventure), accessed on February 26, 2010 (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert W. Decker, Barbara B. Decker: Mountains of Fire - The Nature of Volcanoes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991, ISBN 0-521-31290-6 , p. 10.
- ↑ Daniel Obert: Volcanoes. 2000, p. 101.
- ↑ "Evolution of Mount Pelee" ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on mount-pelee.com . Retrieved March 31, 2010 (English).
- ↑ "Mount Pelée Volcano" ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on martinique-nature.com . Retrieved March 30, 2010 (English).
- ↑ "1792 minor events" ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on mount-pelee.com . Retrieved February 23, 2010.
- ^ Zebrowski Jr.: The Last Days of St. Pierre. 2002, p. 84.
- ^ Robert W. Decker & Barbara B. Decker: Mountains of Fire - The Nature of Volcanoes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991, ISBN 0521312906 , p. 29.
- ↑ "May 8, 1902, the catastrophe de la montagne Pelée" on 3mats.net (official website of the three-masted barque Belem ). Retrieved February 28, 2010 (French).
- ↑ Daniel Obert: Volcanoes. 2000, p. 24.
- ↑ von Rose (1997), p. 32.
- ↑ Based on data from the Smithsonian Institution .
- ↑ a b c d e Daniel Obert: Vulkane. 2000, p. 123.
- ↑ a b c d von Rose (1997), p. 35.
- Jump up ↑ Luis E. Lara: The 2008 eruption of the Chaitén Volcano, Chile: a preliminary report on scielo.cl (Scientific Electronic Library Online). Retrieved March 28, 2010 (English).
- ^ "How Volcanoes work: Nevado del Ruiz (1985)" on geology.sdsu.edu ( San Diego State University - Department of Geological Sciences). Retrieved March 28, 2010 (English).
- ↑ Scarth (2002), pp. 212-218.
- ↑ Daniel Obert: Volcanoes. 2000, p. 25.
- ↑ Cyril Aubaud, Jean-Elie Athanase, Valérie Clouard, Anne-Valérie Barras, Olivier Sedan: A review of historical lahars, floods, and landslides in the Prêcheur river catchment (Montagne Pelée volcano, Martinique island, Lesser Antilles) . In: Bulletin de la Société géologique de France , Vol. 184 (2013), pp. 137–154.
- ^ Johnson (1997), p. 45.
- ↑ Daniel Obert: Volcanoes. 2000, p. 142.
