Mount Pelée-the Montagne Pelée in French-is a gently sloping volcanic cone surrounded by luxuriant forests, scored here and there by deep ravines, some five miles north of the city of St. Pierre and fifteen miles northwest of the Martinican capital of Fort-de-France. The mountain, its peak forever draped in heavy clouds, serves as a monumental backdrop to the Bay of St. Pierre, one of the most beautiful natural harbors in the Caribbean and, in the late nineteenth century, the cultural capital of the region-the Paris of the Antilles. The volcano, its massive presence notwithstanding, had never been particularly feared before its massive explosion on May 8, 1902; only minor eruptions had been recorded previously, the most dramatic having occurred in 1792 and 1851. In 1902, however, the stratovolcano displayed its overwhelming destructive power by sending a nuée ardente (a pyroclastic cloud) sweeping down the valley to the port of St. Pierre. Within minutes the town and virtually all its inhabitants, some 29,000 people (15% of the population of the island of Martinique), were incinerated. So dramatic was this event that the mountain gave its name to a specific kind of volcanic eruption-the Pelean-type-associated with explosive outbursts that generate dense mixtures of hot volcanic fragments and gas.

The tragedy of Mont Pelée was the most catastrophic volcanic eruption in the twentieth century and remains the deadliest natural catastrophe in Caribbean history. The town of St. Pierre never fully recovered. Today, its population of about 10,000 live amid the ruins of the 1902 eruption, in a location still startling in its beauty.

For literary renditions of the catastrophic eruption, see Patrick Chamoiseau’s novel Texaco (1992) and Raphaël Confiant’s Nuée Ardente (2002).