Montserrat is part of the Lesser Antilles, an island chain in the Carribean formed by volcanic activity. It was formed because it lies at the intersection of three tectonic plates, the North American plate, the South American plate and the Carribean plate. Montserrat was formed about 25 million years ago. 

There are many dormant volcanic peaks on the island. The active volcano is located in the south end of the island and is called Soufriere Hills. This is the highest point of the island. It is approximately 950m high. 

The Soufriere Hills began erupting in 1996 after about 300 years of being dormant. The pyroclastic flows have made the southern end of the island uninhabitable. The city of Plymouth is covered in ash. Plymouth was evacuated in 1997.

For more information on the volcano, go to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.
 

Observation Log

At night, we can see the glowing red dome and the rocks that are falling down the sides. Even if it a little cloudy, you can see the bright red dome. You can only see this from some areas. At night on Sunday, December 8th, there was a pyroclastic flow that went down the east side of the volcano towards the abandoned airport. We didn't see anything, but the scientists did.

Mon Dec 9 
We went to a presentation by Professor Steve Sparks from Bristol University in England. He showed slides about the volcano and talked about how the volcano dome grows before it explodes. He also talked about trying to learn enough about volcanoes to try to predict their behaviour. It was very interesting.

Tues Dec 11
Tonight we went to a new lookout point to see the volcano. We were very high up and could see Belham Valley where there was a lot of damage from a mudflow that happened a couple months ago. We went to Mount St. Helens two summer ago and the Montserrat looks very similar. They are both volcanoes that had explosive events and causes a lot of damage. The mud came down from the volcano, followed the valley and flowed right to the sea. The view from this lookout was beautiful.

Thurs Dec 12
Today we went to the lookout to see the volcano on the side that had the pyroclastic flow on Sunday. It was very clear so we could almost see the volcano all the way to the top. There was a rut of lighter colored stone so you could see the path the rocks took from the top of the volcano down to the sea.

Fri Dec 13
Today we went to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory to look at the equipment they use to monitor the volcanoes. They have some drum instruments that record activity with a needle that moves up and down like a seismometer. Also, we looked at computer files with photos of the volcano over the last week. The MVO has cameras in different locations around the volcano always recording so they can watch the activity from all sides. It was interesting to see the pyroclastic flow from Sunday, Dec 8. The dome of the volcano exploded and the flow ran down the side. Then you could see the dome starting to expand and grow again from the magma pushing up from the inside of the volcano.

Sun Dec 15
Today was a very exciting day. In the afternoon a large ash cloud came over the house. Since we've been here we've seen quite a few ash clouds but they are usually south of us. The volcano is having pyroclastic flows that are falling down the northeast side of the volcano towards the old airport (in the opposite direction to us). The winds usually go from east to west so the ash clouds from the flows go over the evacuated city of Plymouth (which is just south of our house). When the ash cloud came over, the sky was very dark and brownish gray. Little bits of ash fell and got in Genevieve's eyes and in Cooper's mouth. We ran in the house and closed all the windows so no dust would come in through the screens. When it passed and moved out to the ocean, we went outside. It smelled like rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide). The cloud only lasted about 20 minutes. They had to evacuate the drilling site because it is in the exclusion zone where people aren't allowed to live. When they came back their car was covered in heavy ash that looked like mud. The house we are staying in is just inside the line of the safe zone. Across the street from us is the exclusion zone, so all the houses aren't being lived in.

Tues Dec 17
We went for a walk today and there was fine ash everywhere, so we got our hats to keep it out of our eyes. Sometimes, there are ashy days when there's a fine mist of ash in the air all day. Today was one of those days! We carried around dustmasks in case the ash bothered our throats.

Wed Dec 18
This morning we went to a lookout point to see the volcao. There has been lot of activity with many small pyroclastic flows. The ash clouds were going straight up into the air because there was no wind. You could almost see the whole top of the volcano with rocks falling down the sides and ash clouds filling the sky. The forest below the volcano looked gray instead of green from all the ash.

Tonight we went to see the volcano because there was a huge billowy white fumorole (a cloud of steam) that went straight up to the sky. There were also grey pyroclastic flows going down the side of the volcano. We watched until it got dark and could see all the red hot rocks running down the side. There was a full moon so it was easy to see.

Thurs Dec 19
Today we saw a lot of fumoroles going straight up into the sky again. There was no wind all day so the steam didn't get pushed away. It looks like a huge billowy white cloud that grows straight up. We also saw two ash clouds going down the sides of the volcano. There was no ash in the air because there was no wind. There has been a lot of activity at the volcano since last Sunday. It was quite quiet for the first two weeks that we were here. It's very different now.

Fri Dec 20
Again today the weather is very calm with no winds and there is a lot of activity. We went twice to our neighbors deck to see huge white fumoroles going straight up into the sky.

Sat Dec 21
Today it's "snowing" ash! Grey ash is coming down and landing on the deck. Cooper swept it up and put it in a bag to take home. Our car is covered with ash and looks like we drove through a huge mud puddle. We went to the north end of the island and there was no ashfall at all. Everything is clean and all the cars have no ash on them.

Sun Dec 22
Today it is clear but there is no ash. We fly to Antigua on a helicopter so that we can fly home to Pennsylvania tomorrow.
The helicopter ride was fun. It seats 8 passengers and it takes about 25 minutes to fly from Montserrat to Antigua. In Antigua we had to circle the airport and wait for an airp[lane to land before we did.