14 21, 409–434. Loughlin, S. C., Calder, E. S., Clarke, A., Cole, P. D., Luckett, R., Mangan, M. T., et al. 3.On July 4, 1905 Mount Pelee finally stops erupting. Soc. Pelée, whose name is a French term meaning “Bald,” consists of … doi: 10.1002/2017JB013981, Kelfoun, K., Samaniego, P., Palacios, P., and Barba, D. (2009). A realistic deposit volume is proposed, and the mass flux of the pyroclastic current that entered the sea is estimated. doi: 10.2113/gssgfbull.184.1-2.137, PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar, Belousov, A., Voight, B., and Belousova, M. (2007). (1989). The damage the eruption caused the worst volcanic disaster in the 20th century. (2014). First of all, due to the proximity of the sea from the Mount Pelée crater, which acts as a flat and smooth surface, any surge produced by a block-and-ash flow, that propagates mostly southward, will be diverted when material flows over the sea surface. With similar characteristics as in previous case studies elsewhere, the May 8th, 1902 event is considered as a small-scale explosive event for this volcano, associated with high-energy, small-volume pyroclastic currents for which the probability of occurrence is higher than a catastrophic blast event (one every 300 years). Resour. The occurrence of a blast during the May 8th, 1902 eruption has been strongly debated (Fisher and Heiken, 1983, 1990; Sparks, 1983; Boudon et al., 1990). Pelee on the north (1980); Fisher and Heiken (1982), Bourdier et al. Res. According to Roobol and Smith (1975); Chrétien and Brousse (1989), and Lacroix (1904), precursors of the May 1902 eruption began more than 10 years before the eruption, in 1889, when fumaroles were observed in the Etang Sec caldera for the first time. Fine-grained facies of the May 8th, May 20th, June 6th, and August 30th deposits in the Fort district (St Pierre). Quantifying entrainment in pyroclastic density currents from the Tungurahua eruption, Ecuador: Integrating field proxies with numerical simulations. (A,B) Were taken in August 1902 from Morne Abel looking south (A) and from Morne d’Orange looking north (B). Nevertheless, the total volume of the May 8th pyroclastic current, as well as the volume portions of the block-and-ash flow and ash-cloud surge components, are still unknown. The two layers are then coupled and exchange mass and momentum following two exchanges laws (arrows in Figure 5). Surge velocities are either in good agreement or underestimated by a factor of 3, depending on the reference value taken (Table 3) but are within the typical range of 40–90 m s–1 for ash-cloud surge estimations elsewhere (Calder et al., 1999; Cronin et al., 2013; Ogburn et al., 2014). Mount Pelee after disaster. (2017). Montserrat. 261, 244–259. of the world, including Solfatara fields; Part 20, West Indies: Rome, The river "Rivière Blanche" … Geophys. This caldera is approximated in the DEM by a bowl-shape of 860 m wide for 300 m deep, and centered roughly on the 1929 lava dome, as illustrated in Figure 6. Three coefficients were used: (1) the Jaccard similarity coefficient (RJ) uses TP and the union of areas inundated by observed and simulated flows: (2) the model sensitivity (RMS) uses TP and the area inundated by simulated flows: (3) the model precision (RMP) uses TP and the area inundated by observed flows: The reader can refer to Charbonnier et al. Geotherm. Figure 8 presents the maximum dynamic pressure and the mean direction of the ash-cloud surge extracted from the best-fit simulation. Stratified flow in pyroclastic surges. (1989), and Charland and Lajoie (1989) identified flow directions in Fond Canonville and on the east of the Rivière Blanche, close to the coast (red arrows in Figure 3). A similar process has already been inferred for the simulation of the November 5th, 2010 pyroclastic current at Merapi by Kelfoun et al. The top of Mount Pelée is formed by a horseshoe like caldera opened to the south; the present summit crater l’Etang Sec is fi lled with two lava peaks created during the eruption in 1902 and 1929. Impact of wind direction variability on hazard assessment in Martinique (Lesser Antilles): The example of the 13.5 ka cal BP Bellefontaine Plinian eruption of Mount Pelée volcano. doi: 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2013.01.007. In order to numerically reproduce these source conditions as accurately and realistically as possible, the DEM of the summit area was artificially modified to reproduce the topography of the Etang Sec caldera, as estimated by Lacroix (1904), Chrétien and Brousse (1989), and Tanguy (1994). Our understanding of the May 1902 Mount Pelée pyroclastic currents was improved decades later with the 1980 Mount St Helens eruption (Lipman and Mullineaux, 1981) and the subsequent advances the eruption brought to the understanding of explosive dome collapse processes. Res. Geotherm. Solid Earth 122, 1–19. Directed blasts and blast-generated pyroclastic density currents: a comparison of the Bezymianny 1956, Mount St Helens 1980, and Soufrière Hills, Montserrat 1997 eruptions and deposits. Soc. J. Volcanol. The volcano is currently in a quiescent state, which means it is not active, but is … doi: 10.1007/s00445-018-1265-1266, Carazzo, G., Tait, S., Kaminski, E., and Gardner, J. E. (2012). *Correspondence: Valentin Gueugneau, vgueugneau@usf.edu, Front. (1998). For ease of comparison, outlines of the observed ash-cloud surge and block-and-ash flow, as extracted from the field, have been added with a white and black outline, respectively. Mobility of pyroclastic flows and surges at the Soufriere Hills Volcano. To simulate stresses applied to the concentrated flow during transport using a depth-averaged approach, the plastic rheological law is used, involving a constant retarding stress T (see Supplementary Material). J. Volcanol. (2005) with their model. doi: 10.1016/S0377-0273(98)00094-98, Voight, B., Komorowski, J.-C., Norton, G. E., Belousov, A. Indeed, regarding our results, simulating the pyroclastic current as a blast flow appears to be unnecessary since a blast is exclusively formed in the crater, as the complementary simulation, and would probably have been unable to reproduce the pear-like shape of the surge deposit. Andean Geol. Am. J. M. Lindsay, (Jamaica: University of the West Indies), 65–102. Geotherm. This phreatic activity was observed sporadically until May 1st and 2nd when it reached its paroxysm. The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation, to any qualified researcher. Res. (1980) but are underestimated compared to the estimated value of 150 m s–1 given by Lacroix (1904). With new insight from the St. Helens eruption, numerous studies reinterpreted the deposits of the May 1902 eruption (Fisher et al., 1980; Fisher and Heiken, 1982, 1983, 1990; Sparks, 1983; Boudon and Lajoie, 1989; Bourdier et al., 1989; Charland and Lajoie, 1989; Lajoie et al., 1989; Boudon et al., 1990) to better constrain the eruptive source conditions and flow propagation dynamics. Results of simulations highlight the important role that topography played in promoting the spreading of the May 8th, 1902 pyroclastic current in the direction of St Pierre. Res. Mt. Geographical setting and description []. Pelée is the most active volcano of the Lesser Antilles arc, with more than 20 major eruptions during the past 5000 years. J. Volcanol. Century Magazine 64, 764–785. When the simulated block-and-ash flow entered the sea, it formed unrealistic thick and large lobes (Figure 7). Modeling dense pyroclastic basal flows from collapsing columns. Since our model is currently unable to simulate a laterally-directed blast and its associated initial burst phase, our results show instead that: (i) such a lateral explosion was not a compulsory component of the source conditions needed to correctly reproduce the characteristics of the May 8th pyroclastic current numerically, and (ii) the May 8th events can be modeled with relatively simple physics, commonly attributed to small-scale eruptions generating small-volume pyroclastic currents. Mount Pelée ( / p ə ˈ l eɪ /; French: Montagne Pelée "Bald Mountain") is an active volcano at the northern end of the island and French overseas department of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean.Its volcanic cone is composed of layers of volcanic ash and hardened lava. Concerning the surge direction toward St Pierre, we notice that the western deflection of the current by the sea seems to be counterbalanced by the topographic barrier to the east of the city, from Morne Abel to Morne d’Orange (Figure 9A). Among the two interpretations, only the simple ash-cloud surge is tested, generated from a block-and-ash flow initially supplied from the artificially recreated 1902 crater. The eruption of Mount Pelée, 1851. Geophys. doi: 10.1007/s00445-004-0344-z, Tanguy, J.-C. C. (1994). Fisher, R.V., and Heiken, G., 1982, Mt. J. Volcanol. J. Geophys. Fluid dynamics of the 1997 Boxing Day volcanic blast on Montserrat. It looks like an ellipse of roughly 1km wide and surrounded by walls rising from 150 to 200m. Rapid dome growth at Montagne Pelée during the early stages of the 1902-1905 eruption: a reconstruction from Lacroix’s data. Res. The numerical modeling results give important insights into the dynamics of the pyroclastic current, as well as the general eruptive sequence and improve the assessment of pyroclastic current-related hazards at Mount Pelée, helpful for the mitigation of future eruptive crises. The volume of material in the crater and the supply duration are first adjusted by matching the general aerial distribution and thicknesses of the simulated deposits to the real one. – The surge propagation in the northern part of the upper flank could be associated with a short explosion at the beginning of the eruption, analogous to a “low-intensity” burst phase. Lacroix, A. Later he was freed by the army rescue team and even pardoned. 69, 701–740. The volcano is currently in a quiescent … (1980) was tested, with the ash-cloud surge generated solely by the block-and-ash flow coming from the crater outlet, and its feasibility and realism in reproducing the real flows is assessed. Pelee is famous for the May 8, 1902 eruption which killed 29,000 people and destroyed the city of St. Pierre. 381, 168–184. 208, 122–135. Soc. Bull. In order to reproduce the actual runout of the ash-cloud surge, the particle drag coefficient Cd used in our simulations had to be set to an unrealistically high value (see Table 2). In fact, the chosen value of 35 does not match any previous estimation of this coefficient for volcanic particles (0.47–1; Dellino et al., 2005) and is overestimated by a factor of at least 30. Geol. Photograph of Mt. (2016). The block-and-ash flow simulation also provides a relatively good fit (Figure 7), although the values obtained for the three validation metrics are lower than for the surge (between 43 and 67%). J. Volcanol. Bull. Pelee, Martinique; May 8 and 20,