Sunday, March 29, 2009

Mt.Pelee


Enviromental Dangers/Benefits

When Mt. Pelee erupts it emitts dangerous gases into the air along with ash cloudsas well. The damage to property in past eruptions was pretty bad. The pyroclastic flows basically destroyed everything in its path including houses, factories, crops, land, public buildings and anything else in the pyroclastic flows path. atahis just goes to show how deadly pyroclastic flows are. After Mt. Pelee erupted the soil wasnt able to grow anything on it fora months because of the deaddly lahars(mudslides) which came from the eruption, also all the ash from the ash clouds too a long time to clean up, which made it hard to use the soil for anything. Also all the gases in the air made it hard for people to go and clean up the destruction from the volcanic eruption because the gases were so deadly, that people didnt want to risk their lives. So people didnt go back to St. Pierre for a couple of weeks until the ash clouds cleared away.

Eruption Style

Mt. Pelee was very explosive when it was active but now it is a dormant volcano. The lava type is unknown. Some of the hazards that happen when Mt. Pelee erupts are pyroclastic flows, Lahars which are mud flows, lava flows, debris. ash clouds and tons of ash falling from the volcano, and lava dome extrusions.

Neighboring Volcanos

Some Mt. Pelees neighboring Volcanoes are: Saint Vincents, La Soufriere, Guadeloupes, Montserrats Soufriere hills, and the submarine Volcano Kick-em Jenny, and many more

Eruption History

Mt. Pelees most recen volcanic eruption was in 1902. This Volcanic eruption was also its deadliest volcanic eruption. This volcanic eruption was known as the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. Killing 30,000 people inSt. Pierre and 121 people from other cities in Martinique. Also only 2 people survived in Martinique from this deadly volcanic disaster. This eruption had very deadly and dangerous pyroclastic flows, which were the cause of most deaths in Martinique. This eruption of Mt. Pelee was a massive devastation to france because it had not had a major volcanic eruption before this time.

Geologic Location

Mt. Pelee is located on the Northern tip of the French overseas department of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Carribean. It is located on the South-American plate boundary. The tectonic plates that it was biult on are the Carribean plate and the Atlantic oceanic crust. So this volcano was made on a continental-oceanic crust plate. Soime of the neighboring cities that surround Mt. Pelee are: St. Pierre, Ajoupa-bouillon, bellefontaine, case-pilote, Fort- de -France, and many more.

Type of Volcano

Mt. Pelee is a stratovolcano, which is also sometimes called a composite volcano. A composite volcano is conical in shape with many layers of lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. Composed mostly of pyroclastic material. Pyroclastic material is described as airbourne fragments that are emitted from the volcano when it erupts. Mt. Pelee is a continental volcano located on the island Martinique.