Montserrat Case Study

Question 1

What volcano erupted and when did it erupt?

Answer 1

The Soufriere Hills volcano, 25th June 1997

Question 2

What kind of volcano was it? plate margin? plates?

Answer 2

• composite

- destructive PM where the North American is going under the Caribbean plate

Question 3

when and what was going on prior to the eruption?

Answer 3

in 1995, earthquakes, small eruption and lahars started - continued until 1997

Question 4

what happened on June 25th 1997?

Answer 4

was a series of small earthquakes followed by pyroclastic flow. After more earthquakes, the main eruption happened

Question 5

how much material was released?

Answer 5

• 4-5 million m3 of material released over a 20 minute period
• large ash cloud produced

Question 6

how far did the pyroclastic flows go?

Answer 6

covered several square km’s and reached within 50m of the airport which is 5.5km north of the volcano

Question 7

what happened following the earthquake

Answer 7

further eruptions over the following months - the airport was destroyed on 21st September 1997 by pyroclastic flows

Question 8

what were the economic impacts of the eruption?

Answer 8

• people’s homes and investments loss in value was about £1 billion
• over 20 villages and 2/3 of homes destroyed by pyroclastic flows
• loss in tourism and businesses destroyed, disrupted economy, tourism beginning to increase as people want to see the volcano
• schools, hospitals, airport and the port were destroyed

Question 9

what were the social impacts of the eruption?

Answer 9

• 19 died, 7 injured
• hundreds of people lost their homes
• fires destroyed many buildings e.g. local government offices
• population decline, 8000 out of 12,000 evacuated starting in 1995

Question 10

what were the environmental impacts of the eruption?

Answer 10

• large areas were covered with volcanic material - capital city, Plymouth buried under 12m of mud + ash
• vegetation and farmland were destroyed
• volcanic ash from eruption has improved soil fertility

Question 11

what were the short term responses?

Answer 11

• people evacuated from south to safe areas in the north - evacuations started in 1995
• shelters were built to house evacuees
• temporary infrastructure was built e.g. roads
• UK provided £17 million of emergency aid
• local emergency services provided support units to search for and rescue survivors

Question 12

what were the long term responses?

Answer 12

• a risk map was created and an exclusion zone is in place - south is off limits while volcano is active
• UK has provided £41 million of long-term air to develop the north - new docks, airport, houses
• The Montserrat Volcano Observatory has been set up to try and predict future earthquakes

Question 13

what was the management prior to the volcano?

Answer 13

there was little management before event which increased the severity

• scientist studied volcano in 80s but report had little attention
• no disaster management plan for volcanic eruption - responses were slow when eruptions began
• key infrastructure built in 90s in areas at risk, so eruption destroyed infrastructure - further hampered the response