1902 eruption of Mount Pelée
You’ve probably heard of the destruction of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, but have you read about the eruption of Mount Pelée in 1902 and the destruction of Saint Pierre?
Probably not.
Do you know which caused greater loss of life? If you said the destruction of Pompeii you would be wrong.
The destruction of Pompeii has always occupied the place in my mind as the vulcanic eruption which caused the greatest loss of human life in recorded history. Not necessarily the vulcano of greatest explosive force, but certainly the greatest loss of human life. Perhaps this only shows how ignorant I am, but I was recently educated by reading about the destructionf of Saint Pierre in the eruption of Mount Pelée.
Evacuees
It is estimated that “the population of Pompeii range from 10,000 to 20,000, whilst Herculaneum [the other town destroyed in Vesuvius's eruption] is thought to have had a population of about 5,000.” If we presume that is the number of casualties, it still falls short of the 26,000 to 36,000 casualties that accompanied the eruption of Mount Pelée.
More than just the massive casualties, the eruption of Mount Pelée is documented in much greater detail than that of Vesuvius in 79 AD (no real big surprise there), and it makes for some gripping reading. If you want to read the entire article, go here. The main blast is recounted as such:
The main eruption, on May 8, 1902, on the Ascension Day, destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, about 4 miles south of the peak.
In the morning, people were observing the fireworks the mountain was showing off. The night shift telegraph operator was sending the reports of the volcano’s activity, to the operator at Fort-de-France, claiming no significant new developments; his last transmission was “Allez”, handing over the line to the remote operator. It was 7:52; the next second the telegraph line went dead. A cable repair ship had the city in direct view; the upper mountainside ripped open and a dense black cloud shot out horizontally. A second black cloud rolled upwards, forming a gigantic mushroom cloud and darkening the sky in 50 miles radius. The initial speed of both clouds was later calculated to over 670 kilometers per hour.
The horizontal pyroclastic cloud was hugging the ground, speeding down towards the city of Saint Pierre, appearing black and heavy, glowing hot from the inside. In under a minute it reached the city, instantly igniting everything combustible it came in contact with, covering the entire city.
A rush of wind followed, this time towards the mountain. Then came a half-hour downpour of muddy rain mixed with ashes. For the next several hours, all communication with the city was severed. Nobody knew what was happening, nor who had authority over the island, as the governor was unreachable and his status unknown. Some survivors were picked from the sea; mostly badly burned sailors, who had been blown into the sea by the blast and then clung for hours to floating debris.
A warship arrived towards the shore at about 12:30, but the heat prevented landing until about 3 PM. The city burned for several more days.
The area devastated by the pyroclastic cloud covered about 8 square miles, with the city of St. Pierre taking its brunt.
The cloud consisted of superheated steam and volcanic gases and dust, with temperatures reaching over 1000 °C.
Saint Pierre had a population of some ~30,000, which was swelled by refugees from the minor explosions and mud flows first emitted by the volcano. There were pitifully few survivors: Ludger Sylbaris, a prisoner held in an underground cell in the town’s jail (later pardoned), and Léon Compere-Léandre, a man who lived at the edge of the city. Some sources also list Havivra Da Ifrile, a little girl. One woman, a housemaid, also survived the pyroclastic flow but perished soon after; the only thing she remembered from the event was sudden heat.
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