What geographic location is the Montserrat volcano in? Which volcano is erupting? What type of magma is erupting? What type of volcanic eruptions are taking place? The style?

rocky Jeremy Greenway

Dear Jeremy,

Monsterrat is in the Lesser Antilles, a subduction zone caused by subduction of the North American/Atlantic plate under the Caribbean plate. The official name of the volcano seems to change, and probably there are various names for the different parts of the thing. You mainly see references to the name being "Soufriere Hills", but sometimes they also say "Chance Peak". Chance Peak may just be the highest point on the volcano called Sourfiere hills. The volcano is presently building a dome. A number of rather spectacular spines have grown on the dome and every once in a while they or parts of the main dome collapse to generate block-and-ash flows. There have also been some small lahars. The volcano has an amphitheater-shaped caldera so the main danger area is downslope from the open amphitheater. So far the dome has not grown big enough to overtop the walls of the amphitheater in the other directions, but that could happen if it keeps growing. There is more information in the "what's erupting now" section of VolcanoWorld, and a whole lot more information in the Monsterrat section of the Michigan Tech. University Volcanology page:

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/volcanoes/west.indes/soufriere/

Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii


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