Volcanic Eruption in Montserrat

Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory located in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean Sea. It is approximately 16 km long and 11 km wide and is home to the Soufrière Hills volcano.

After a long period of dormancy, the volcano became active in 1995 and has continued to erupt ever since. Its eruptions have rendered more than half of Montserrat uninhabitable, destroying the capital city, Plymouth, and causing widespread evacuations which have resulted in two thirds of the population leaving the island. Seismic activity had occurred in 1897–1898, 1933–1937 and again in 1966–1967 but the eruption that began on 18th July 1995 was the first since the 17th century.

When pyroclastic flows (currents of rock and hot gas up to 1000°C that travel at speeds of up to 700 km/hr) and mudflows began occurring regularly, Plymouth was evacuated. A large eruption on 25th June 1997 resulted in the deaths of nineteen people and buried the south end of the island in ash and burning rock. The island's airport was directly in the path of the main pyroclastic flow and was completely destroyed. Montserrat's tourist industry was also destroyed.

The Charter has been activated for Soufrière Hills twice: on 12th July 2003 after an eruption covered the island with mud and ash, causing major disruption and water, power and communications to be intermittent; and again on 29th July 2008. This last was one of the most devastating; starting with an intense swarm of earthquakes at the volcano during the last week of July 2008 and culminating in an explosion on the night of 28/29 July 2008 that involved fist-sized pumice falling in inhabited areas and pyroclastic flows setting vegetation on fire. The height of the ash column was estimated at 12 km (40,000 feet) above sea level.

In the 2003 activation, the Authorised User was the UK Department for International Development (DFID) on behalf of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO). In the 2008 activation, the Authorised User was the UK Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS), again on behalf of the MVO. The end user in both cases was the MVO who required the data in an attempt to see through the cloud obscuring the upper slopes of the volcano and determine the source of the event, and the state of the lava dome and surrounding areas. The Project Manager's report from the 2008 activation is available here.