Mt. Pelee Erupts II January 23, 2018PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITCaribbean History, French History, Natural Disasters Lead: During its deadly destruction of the Martinique port city of St. Pierre, Mt. Pelée threw up an unusual form of volcanic eruption, the nuée ardente, or glowing cloud. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Volcanoes come in different forms. Their shape is determined by a variety of factors: the amount, sequence, and contents of what comes out during an eruption and the nature of the vent and land through which it pushes its volcanic product called magma. The perfectly shaped volcanoes such as Mt. Fuji in Japan are called stratovolcanoes because in most cases, over a long period of time, they generate moderate eruptions of ash and lava which are then deposited in layers or strata. Mt. Pelée, a stratavolcano, towers 4500 feet above the northern end of the Caribbean Island of Martinique. Download [7.07 KB]
Mt. Pelee Erupts I January 22, 2018PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITCaribbean History, French History, Natural Disasters Lead: On the morning of May 8, 1902, a massive cloud of volcanic matter rolled out of the conical summit of Mt. Pelée and plunged toward the coastal city of St. Pierre on the Caribbean island of Martinique. Within minutes the 30,000 citizens of St. Pierre had been incinerated. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Visited by Columbus on his fourth voyage in 1502, Martinique was first settled by Europeans when the French established a colony there in 1635. Except for a few years during wartime, they retained control and French Martinique remains in the twenty-first century. The island was formed by volcanoes, the principal of which was Mt. Pelée, a stratovolcano towering 4500 feet above the northern end of the Island. Until 1902 the chief commercial center of Martinique was the port of St. Pierre three miles distant from Mt. Pelée. Download [7.10 KB]
Mt. Pelee II July 19, 2016PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITCaribbean History, Natural Disaster Lead: During its deadly destruction of the Martinique port city of St. Pierre, Mt. Pelée threw up an unusual form of volcanic eruption, the nuée ardente, or glowing cloud.Tag: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Volcanoes come in different forms. Their shape is determined by a variety of factors: the amount, sequence, and contents of what comes out during an eruption and the nature of the vent and land through which it pushes its volcanic product called magma. The perfectly shaped volcanoes such as Mt. Fuji in Japan are called stratovolcanoes because in most cases, over a long period of time, they generate moderate eruptions of ash and lava which are then deposited in layers or strata. Mt. Pelée, a stratavolcano, towers 4500 feet above the northern end of the Caribbean Island of Martinique. Read more →
Mt. Pelee I July 18, 2016PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITCaribbean History, Natural Disaster Lead: On the morning of May 8, 1902, a massive cloud of volcanic matter rolled out of the conical summit of Mt. Pelée and plunged toward the coastal city of St. Pierre on the Caribbean island of Martinique. Within minutes the 30,000 citizens of St. Pierre had been incinerated. Tag: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Visited by Columbus on his fourth voyage in 1502, Martinique was first settled by Europeans when the French established a colony there in 1635. Except for a few years during wartime, they retained control and French Martinique remains in the twenty-first century. The island was formed by volcanoes, the principal of which was Mt. Pelée, a stratovolcano towering 4500 feet above the northern end of the Island. Until 1902 the chief commercial center of Martinique was the port of St. Pierre three miles distant from Mt. Pelée. Read more →
Caribbean Holocaust May 22, 1999PermalinkGabe OffenbackToday's AMITCaribbean History, Spanish History Lead: On October 12, 1492 the three ships in Christopher Columbus' tiny squadron made land on San Salvador Island in the eastern Bahamas. He found there a handsome indigenous people of peaceful disposition and of efficient agricultural habits. Within fifty years the Arawak or Tainos were all but wiped out. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: He called them, "the best people in the world and above all the gentlest," but Columbus' mind and that of his royal patrons was on gold and silver and the peaceful people of islands were soon found to be expendable. The Arawak immigrated to the eastern Caribbean archipelago from mainland South America and by Columbus' time were found mostly in the Greater Antilles: Cuba, Dominica, and the Bahamas. They had a complex religious and social structure organized around autonomous villages some of which had as many as 3000 inhabitants. Each village was led by hereditary rulers called cacique (kaseke) who were assisted in religious matters by shamans. Read more →
