ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Facing Uncertainty in Volcanic Risk Management: The Tazieff-Allègre Controversy on Guadeloupe’s Soufrière Eruption

• In Event: Geosciences in the 19thC and 20thC

English Abstract

In July 1975, the Souffrière volcano in the Island of Guadeloupe (French Antilles) began to show signs of an anormal seismic activity. Local authorities and volcanologists from the Institute de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), charged with the monitoring of volcanic activity in France, mobilized and discussed the possibility of evacuating the population living around the volcano. An increase of activity in 1976 led to increased surveillance, and diverging opinions arose on the nature of the risk and the need to evacuate the population. A violent public controversy confronted Haroun Tazieff, media celebrity and head of the IPGP service of volcanology, and Claude Allègre, director of the IPGP. An international committee of experts has been formed to try to overcome tensions and assist in the decision-making process. Tazieff, who argued for the lack of major danger, was dismissed and more than 70,000 people were evacuated in the island. However, Tazieff forecast eventually turned to be right and the eruption never occurred. The dispute between Tazieff and Allègre had a disruptive effect in French geosciences and was traumatic for the local population. It has also informed volcanic risk management since. On the 50th anniversary of the events, this paper aims to evaluate the different meanings and appropriations of this controversy and to provide new readings based on the use of new archives.

Author

• Nestor Herran, Sorbonne Université