Ash gets everywhere, even through the tiniest of cracks. It chokes gardens, kills the grass in pastures, and makes roads slippery. The weight of it can collapse roofs. It travels on the trade winds, dusting neighbouring islands and has occasionally shut down the neighbouring airports of Guadeloupe and Antigua. Breathing ash day in and day out could bring on a deadly disease called silicosis, which thickens lung tissue and causes severe shortness of breath.
Montserrat has a volcano observatory which monitors it 24 hours a day. The size of the lava dome in the crater is measured. This tells a great deal about how quickly the magma is coming up to the surface from where it is stored at about a depth of five or six kilometres beneath the volcano. The rate of ascent of the magma affects how violent the eruption is going to be.
Over 3,000 people still live on the safer northern part of the island. Ashfall, air quality, rainfall and water quality around the volcano is monitored. This is done to ensure that the volcano isn’t having a large impact on the environment and on people’s health.
Cork Hill Chances Peak Plymouth
Soufrière Hills
Fig. 21 Montserrat
To find out what is happening at the Montserrat volcano at the moment, log onto http://www.mvo.ms/