Mount Pelée, << puh LAY, >> is an active volcano on the north end of Martinique in the Caribbean region. It rises 4,583 feet (1,397 meters) above sea level.
The volcano erupted violently in 1902, after lying dormant since 1851. Floods of mud loosened by the eruption devastated the slopes of the mountain. A heap of lava 1,000 feet (300 meters) high formed in the crater. A slender spire of rock was thrust up another 1,000 feet from the crater. An avalanche of red-hot lava and clouds of hot gas swept down the mountain, destroying the city of St.-Pierre and killing about 28,000 people. Only a few people, including a man in prison in the city’s dungeon, escaped alive. Milder eruptions occurred between 1929 and 1932. The French government maintains a volcano observatory on Mount Pelée.
