Economic issues

Soufrière Hills, Montserrat

Part 1 Recent volcanic activity

This article is an update on the popular case study of the active Soufrière Hills volcano in Montserrat. It considers the physical processes involved in recent volcanic activity and assesses the monitoring and prediction techniques used on the island. Part 2, in the next issue of GEOGRAPHY REVIEW, will look at the long-term impacts of the eruptions

David Alcock

Ash and steam from Soufrière Hills, as seen from the International Space Station, on 11 October 2009

Montserrat is part of a volcanic arc of islands in the Caribbean (Figure 1), and is still a British territory. Soufrière Hills, an active volcano in the south of the island, started erupting in 1995. Scientists at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) have divided recent volcanic activity at Soufrière Hills into five phases, with pauses between them:

■ Phase 1: summer 1995 to the start of 1998