Soufriere Hills - Montserrat 1995-1997 LDC

General
1. Island in Caribbean - Composite Volcano
2. active volcano, started erupting in 1995
3. MVO divided volcanic activity into five phases
4. early activity 1995
  1. ash emissions, steam explosions, numerous earthquakes, steam reaching 2500m
  2. 1997 - increased dome growth, ballistic projectiles
  3. climax - june 25th
    1. pyroclastic flows from an eruption with 4-5 million metres cubed of material within 20 mins
    2. material flowed down northern flank of volcano damaging houses and killing inhabitants
    3. 40 km2 of 100km2 of island was considered safe
    4. Plymouth - capital buried in 10m of ash and mud
      1. airport/docking facilities destroyed
      2. southern area was uninhabitable
      3. since 1997 - quiet with minor activity
  4. March 1996 - huge ash cloud accompanied by small pyroclastic flows
5. Little management increasing severity of impacts
  1. volcano was studied in 1980s, not much attention
  2. no disaster management plan - slow responses
  3. in 1990s infrastructure had been built in risk areas
social impacts
1. displaced 7000 people. out-migration
2. arrival of 15,000 people from Caribbean Islands - job opportunity in construction
3. 19 people died
4. hundreds lost their homes
health and education impacts
1. worsening of reps diseases
  1. silicosis
  2. post traumatic stress disorder
2. crowded evacuation centres
3. enrolement in schools dropped from 3000 to 600
4. problems retaining teaching staff
5. schools/health centres destroyed
economic impacts
1. agriculture
  1. fertile land became useless/inaccessible
  2. now relies on imports
  3. government campaign - residents grow own crops
2. manufacturing
  1. Montserrat Rice Mills - industries destroyed
  2. offshore medical school - evacuated. spenders in economy
  3. future plans to reinvigorate islands economy included - expansion of ash processing industry
3. tourism
  1. airport in exlusion zone
  2. huge areas out of bounds
  3. 1997 - 400 tourists
    1. ferry to Antigua - increase tourists to 15,000
4. electricity
  1. increase renewable energy, geothermal recharged by sea and freshwater
5. loss in value of investments - £1 billion
6. 2/3rd of homes destroyed
Environmental Impacts
1. millions of pounds of damage to banana and cash crops
2. destruction of third of islands tropical rainforest
3. soil has been enriched with magnesium, potassium from weathering of various minerals in volcanic ash
4. impact on ecosystem
5. livestock abandoned in exlusion zone
6. buried under 12m of ash.mud
monitoring equipment
1. seisometers
2. gas spectrometers, sulphur dioxide release
3. bulging of magma reservoir
islands redevelopment
1. restore tourist industry
2. return of refugees
3. rebuild airport - Geralds £11 million
4. port facilities - Little Bay
5. new footie pitch funded by FIFA
responses
1. set up exclusion zones
2. evacuation programmes
3. farming areas provided
4. MVO
5. temporary shelters in north
6. re-establishment of air and sea links
7. new permanent housing

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Soufriere Hills - Montserrat 1995-1997 LDC

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	Created by charund about 11 years ago