Previous Volcanoes
Mount Pelee
St.Pierre residents living on a French island called Martinique in the
Caribbean Sea had lived on that island for over 2 centuries in fear of
their volcano. In the 1900's some even became familiar with the volcano.
They thought of it as a dragon that peacefully slept in their backyard.
Standing 1400 meters high, the strato volcano called Mount Pelee was cone
shaped and took up 100m2 on Martinique northern part.
The history of
the volcano did not say anything about all 30,000 "Pierrotins", what St.
Pierre residents were called, except 2 could all be dead. No one
knew that this "mountain" would become a milestone in young science vocanology.
The time the volcano
erupted was determined to be very accurate. On May 8th of 1902
between the times of 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. was when the volcano erupted.
This time was found so accurately because a clock had been found in a milatary
hospital that stopped immediately when the volcano erupted. the eruption
did not come unexpected because news stations were foregoing warnings of
the volcano: on April steam came out of mount Pelee and on April 23rd
light earthshockes occurred an a thin rain of ash fell over the city. On
the fateful day of May 7th the residents of st. Pierre
were starteled by an earth Shaking roar of the deadly volcano.
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