Essay, Research Paper: An Other Eruption

AN OTHER ERUPTION?



The January 13, 1999 a new volcano, a stratovolcano, erupted. This volcano is the Soufriere Hills on the island of Montserrat in the West Indies near Cuba and Barbados. Montserrat has three groups of mountains, the highest group is the Soufriere Hills his elevation is 915 meters in the southern part of the island. Chistopher Columbus reached Montserrat in 1493 during is second voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

This volcano began erupting on July 18, 1995. This is the first recorded eruption of this volcano in historic time. When he erupted, he produced minor ash that spread around the island. Periods of intense seismic activity were associated with strong venting of steam and ash. A new vent formed southwest of Castle Peak, an old volcanic dome. There was a violent eruption of Soufriere Hills volcano at 6 :30 am on January 13. A vertical ash column rapidly rose to approximatively 6,00 meters. A big amount of thunder (a loud noise) and lightning occured within this cloud. A pyroclastic flow from the event moved down the Tar River valley to the sea. Steam clouds were created as the flow contacted water. Specialists occured that no one were dead in this eruption. Between January 13,1999 and July, 18 1995 awesome explosion of the volcano make more then a hundred of dead.

Volcanoes are like human; they sleep, they die, they are in activity, and, when they wake up, they erupted. No one can stop a volcano! The only thing that we can do is : don't live near them, because they are too much dangerous for us.