Caribbean volcano spews ash 40,000 feet in air

[Dover]

July 29, 2008, 9:23AM
Caribbean volcano spews ash 40,000 feet in air

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Volcano monitors say the Caribbean's Montserrat volcano has blasted a column of ash 40,000 feet (12 kilometers) high into the sky.

The director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory says late Monday's collapse of a dome at the crater sent bursts of volcanic material sweeping down into the island's abandoned former capital of Plymouth and the sea. The town was buried in a 1997 eruption that killed 19 people on the tiny Caribbean island.

cont'd

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/5912965.html

[mnhtnbb]

1. We were on a Caribbean cruise in '97 and saw the plumes of smoke

coming from Montserrat after it blew. It was quite a sight.

[Nederland]

2. Great

10 to 1 says Rush Limbaugh will mention this as a cause of rising global temperatures and rising greenhouse gas levels.

[Ian David]

3. Island Real Estate for sale-- CHEAP!

I visited Montserrat once, years ago as a child. It's a shame what's happened to them.

[whistle]

4. A little history on the violent volcanic past of Montserrat and the arc of

...Caribbean Islands affected by some 17 volcanoes several of which are frequently active

<snip>
The Volcanic Drama at Montserrat
By Robert Decker and Barbara Decker

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Montserrat, once known as the "Emerald Island" of the British West Indies, is entirely of volcanic origin, and is erupting again. It is part of the Caribbean Island Arc that has largely been built by at least 17 potentially active volcanoes. Two have notorious pasts.

In 1902, Mont Pelee on the French Island of Martinique, 150 miles south of Montserrat, erupted violently, killing 28,000 people in minutes. The pyroclastic flow which swept down on the port city of Saint Pierre was an especially bitter tragedy. Political elections were about to be held there, and even though the volcano had become increasingly active during the days prior to the great eruption, government officials assured the residents that there was no great danger. Worried that they would not be reelected if the city was evacuated, those officials were dead the next day along with all but two people who survived the volcanic holocaust.

In 1976, just the opposite occurred on the Island of Guadelope, 50 miles south of Montserrat. A small eruption of the volcano La Soufriere, and the memory of the Pelee disaster, led to a massive and expensive evacuation of 70,000 people. The eruption waned and scientists and politicians were blamed for their "cry wolf" alarms.

<MORE>
http://www.whfreeman.com/VOLCANOES/DRAMA.HTM