Montage Pelée / Mount Pelée Map (1:80,000)

3D Model

Mount Pelée or Mont Pelée (/pəˈleɪ/ pə-LAY; French: Montagne Pelée, meaning “bald mountain” or “peeled mountain”) is an active volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas department in the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of stratified layers of hardened ash and solidified lava. Its most recent eruption was in 1932.

The stratovolcano’s 1902 eruption destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, killing 29,00 to 30,000 people in the space of a few minutes, in the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. The main eruption, on 8 May 1902, left only two survivors in the direct path of the blast flow: Ludger Sylbaris survived because he was in a poorly ventilated, dungeon-like jail cell and Léon Compère-Léandre, living on the edge of the city, escaped with severe burns.