Montserrat

The Year 9 geographers have been having a look at Montserrat in their geography lessons this week... The Montserrat Volcanic Observatory have just posted this lovely photo on their Facebook page... Click on the photo to link to the MVO website.

Montserrat "explosion"

Just noticed that the Montserrat Volcanic Observatory have added some new photos to their Flickr page, so had a look at their website to find that the alert level has been upped to 4 (5 being the highest) and that there was an explosion which caused a large pyroclastic flow on Friday.

Some excellent images and a range of videos (including some thermal ones) of pyroclastic flows on the MVO website...

Prince Charles visits Montserrat...

Yr9 and Yr11 should recognise the Soufriere Hills volcano, on the Caribbean island of Montserrat...

As part of his tour of the Caribbean, Prince Charles visited Montserrat yesterday, and saw the long-term economic, social and environmental impacts of the 1997 eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano.

There's a video clip here of Prince Charles' visit, and an excellent article from the BBC which is well worth a read, particularly for Yr11.

As part of his tour of the Caribbean, Prince Charles visited the island of Montserrat yesterday.

More Montserrat activity...

I posted back in January about the Soufriere Hills volcano on Montserrat... Although activity died down for a while, there have been lots of earthquakes, rockfalls and pyroclastic flows in the past couple of weeks, and according to the "Recent Activity" section of the MVO website, there was "bright glowing on the East and North of the dome" on 14th February, and the Alert Level remains at 4 (the second highest).

(Still not found a webcam though...)

More Montserrat activity...

According to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory's superb website, activity is continuing, and the island remains on the Alert Level 4 - the second highest. You can see what this means - both in vulcanology terms, and how it affects the general public, by clicking on Alert Level on the website.

The website has descriptions of recent activity, together with lots of very recent photographs. You can also look at photographs and details from previous eruptions and read more about the area, the observatory and its work.

The photograph shows pyroclastic flows entering Tyres Ghaut and Gages Valley, together with "vigorous ash venting". Click on the picture to go to the MVO website.

Thanks to my dad for pointing out this website... (Still not a webcam though - have you got it sorted yet Yr9?!)

Montserrat on high alert...

I've mentioned Earthweek before, but it is always good to be reminded of these things!

This week's edition tells of an ash plume from the Soufriere Hills volcano on Montserrat, which has resulted in the island being put on high alert, and hundreds of people being evacuated.

It also reports of snakes in China being observed for unusual behaviour - which would be a sure sign of an earthquake on the way...