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Disasters with highest death tolls

Mount Pelée

Wednesday May 7, 1902
Martinique

Mount Pelée (Montagne Pelée, meaning "bald mountain" or "peeled mountain") is a volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas department in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of stratified layers of hardened ash and solidified lava. The stratovolcano's eruption in 1902 destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, killing 28,000 people in the space of a few minutes, in the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century.


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