MOUNT PELEE

The Formation of Mount Pelee

Here's the Facts

Mount Pelee is part of a volcanic arc, known as the Lesser Antilles Arc. It is the most active volcano in the arc. Mount Pelee is a stratovolcano (Volcano World 2005), which means that it is built from alternating layers of lava and volcanic ash.

How Mount Pelee was Formed
 
Mount Pelee was formed at an ocean-ocean convergent plate boundary. Where the oceanic crust of one plate converges with the oceanic crust of another, the more dense plate will subduct under the less dense plate. In this case, the North America Plate subducted under the Caribbean Plate (Lloyd, Edwards, 2006). The magma that was produced when the crust subducted rises to the surface and forms an island arc, or a chain of volcanic islands. The island of Martinique is an example of this.

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Figure 5- Mount Pelee was formed by ocean-ocean plate convergence

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"Brief Plate Tectonics." Desert Ecology of Tuscon, AZ. 22 Feb. 2001. Pima Community College. 3 Jan. 2008 <http://wc.pima.edu/~bfiero/tucsonecology/setting/geology_platetec.htm>. 
 
Lynch, Lloyd, and Stacy Edwards. "Reducing Tsunami Risk in the Eastern Caribbean." UWI Today. 14 May 2006. The University of West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago. 4 Jan. 2008 <http://sta.uwi.edu/uwiToday/2006/May/tsunami.asp>. 
 
"Mount Pelee, West Indies." Volcano World. 2005. The Department of Geosciences At Oregon State University. 3 Jan. 2008 <http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/img_mt_pelee.html>.