The Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat erupted violently in 1995 and 1997, destroying the capital city of Plymouth and forcing half of the island's population to evacuate. The eruptions covered two-thirds of the island in ash and destroyed infrastructure like buildings, schools, hospitals, and farmland. This led to widespread economic issues as the island lost its tourist industry and many residents and had to rebuild ports and airports. While aid money was provided, Montserrat continues to struggle economically decades later from the impact of the volcanic eruptions.

1. Montserrat Montserrat Volcanic eruption during 1995 and 1997 By Caitlin Cole

2. The Island Montserrat is a Caribbean island that belongs to Britain. It is around 10 miles long and 7 miles wide with a great 40km length of coastline. Montserrat is about 300miles south east of Puerto Rico and 30miles south west of Antigua. The island used to be inhabited by 12,000 people, however this has now dropped to 5000. The capital of the island is Plymouth however at the moment this is uninhabitable due to the volcano which is the main topic of this PowerPoint. Soufriere Hills Volcano is situated on the south of the Island and has cut of two thirds of its area due to the following eruptions.

3. What actually happened ? The Soufriere Hills Volcano had been active before the eruption of 1995 for example during 1966 however it had then been dormant for many years and the eruption that occurred during 1995 was the first since around the 17 th century! 1995 On the date of July 18 th 1995 Soufriere Hills volcano suddenly became active. At first only loud rumbling noises could be heard along with a volcanic odour and ashfall. Then by the next day small steam explosions began to occur around that small area of the island causing ash to fall amongst the capital Plymouth. This lead to a large scale eruption which apparently covered some areas of Plymouth in up to 12metres of mud and ash. No one was killed however the entire city had to be evacuated. Small earthquakes and mini eruptions carried on for a number of years.

4. 1997 Following the 1995 eruption, small domes of lava continued to grow. When these collapse volcanic ash and pyroclastic flows are caused. These travel down the hill at fast speeds towards the rest of the island. By December 26th these flows had dangerously increased and the Soufriere hills volcano violently exploded causing a collapse of a large lava dome in the crater of the volcano. This caused avalanches of volcanic debris to fall on the surrounding villages and small tsunamis were created in the surrounding shores. A cloud of ash blanketed and darkened most of the Island. Luckily this killed no one as most had already evacuated the city a few months earlier when a surprise pyroclastic flow had caught the villagers unaware and killed around 18 people (June 1997). This eruption had also destroyed many villages.

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