Montserrat

Montserrat

1. CAUSES

   • North American Plate and Caribbean Plate
     • Destructive plate boundary

2. About

   • After 200 years of dormancy, eruptions began in 1995
   • Big eruption in June 1997
   • In the Soufriere Hills

3. EFFECTS

   • Primary
     • 23 dead, 7 injured
     • Hospitals, buildings destoyed
     • Communications down
     • Plymouth buried in about 12m ash and mud!
   • Secondary
     • Tourism declined
     • The economy failed- electrical goods couldn't be imported as the buildings were damaged, and the crops had failed
     • However soil fertility improved from volcanic ash
     • Volcano tourism developed and tourist returning

4. RESPONSES

   • Immediate
     • UK sent £17m in emergency aid
     • 5000 people left the island for the UK or Antigua
     • South of island declared as exclusion zone and everyone evacuated to the North
     • USGS scientists set up seismometers to monitor volcano
   • Long Term
     • UK gave £41m to aid in rebuilding docks and an airport which was opened in 2005
     • Volcano advertised and tourists invited to see the modern day Pompeii
     • Little Bay town built in the north to replace Plymouth
     • The MVO set up to monitor the volcano

Images and files in the map