November 27, 2009OLVESTON, Montserrat — Light ash has fallen over the capital of Montserrat after the Caribbean island's temperamental volcano hurled another round of hot rocks and gases.
Volcano observatory director Paul Cole says a small pyroclastic flow nearly reached the ocean as Soufriere Hills shed part of its old dome this week.
He said Friday that ash fell on parts of Olveston and Old Town.
Tremors also shook the volcano as it began emitting lava closer to the summit.
The volcano became active in 1995 and killed 19 people when it erupted two years later. It buried much of the British territory and forced about half its 12,000 inhabitants to leave.
Soufriere Hills has shot several plumes of ash in recent months.
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| Soufriere Hills | Montserrat | 1600-05= | Stratovolcano | Read | Eruption | Alert Level 3 | |
| Volcano ID: | 1600-05= |
| Name: | Soufri�re Hills |
| Country: | Montserrat |
| Location: | Caribbean Area |
| Type: | Stratovolcano |
| Status: | Historical |
| Elevation: | 915 metre |
| Last eruption: | 2008 |
| Alert Status: | AlertLevel3, Eruption |
The complex, dominantly Soufrire Hills volcano occupies the southern half of the island of Montserrat.
The summit area consists primarily of a series of lava domes emplaced along an ESE-trending zone. English's Crater, a 1-km-wide crater breached widely to the east, was formed during an eruption about 4000 years ago in which the summit collapsed, producing a large submarine debris avalanche. Block-and-ash flow and surge deposits associated with dome growth predominate in flank deposits at Soufrire Hills.
Non-eruptive seismic swarms occurred at 30-year intervals in the 20th century, but with the exception of a 17th-century eruption that produced the Castle Peak lava dome, no historical eruptions were recorded on Montserrat until 1995. Long-term small-to-moderate ash eruptions beginning in that year were later accompanied by lava-dome growth and pyroclastic flows that forced evacuation of the southern half of the island and ultimately destroyed the capital city of Plymouth, causing major social and economic disruption.
