Key Facts

  • The volcano is active and has been erupting since 1995, with its last eruption in 2013. 

  • The volcano has produced both dome-forming and explosive eruptions. The 1997 eruption was particularly devastating, killing 19 people and burying the capital city of Plymouth.  

  • The volcano's eruptions have made more than half of Montserrat uninhabitable. The island has been plagued by sporadic ash falls and lava flows since 1995. 

  • The Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) monitors the volcano's activity. 

  •  The city of Plymouth, St. George's Hill, the volcano, and the entire south of the island are in the Exclusion Zone. 

  •  Some people have moved back to the island and started to rebuild, but only in the safer northern part. However, renewed eruptions have discouraged resettlement. 

  •  Montserrat has relied heavily on British and EU aid. In 2022, work started on a new town and port at Little Bay on the northwest coast of the island. 

  •  While there has been no significant surface activity since 2010, monitoring data indicates that the volcano's magmatic system is still active. This means that future lava extrusion is still a possibility

  • Montserrat. Legendary acts like Elton John, Paul McCartney, Dire Straits, The Police, and Rolling Stones recorded hit albums on the island before Hurricane Hugo (1989) damaged the facility.

  • Because of its volcanic origin, almost all of Montserrat’s beaches feature dark grey or black volcanic sand. Rendezvous Bay, situated in the far north, is the island's only white-sand beach.

Did You Know That Montserrat

  • Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, about 27 miles (43 km) southwest of Antigua.

  • It earned this nickname both for its lush green, rainforest-covered terrain and its unique Irish settlement history. English and Irish Catholic settlers established a presence here in 1632, leaving a legacy reflected in local surnames, folklore, and St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

  • In July 1995, after centuries of dormancy, the Soufrière Hills volcano erupted violently. Repeated eruptions throughout the late 1990s buried the southern two-thirds of the island under ash and lahars.

  • The volcanic activity buried the capital city of Plymouth, leaving it completely abandoned. Today, Plymouth remains a ghost town and is often referred to as the modern "Pompeii of the Caribbean."

  • More than half of the island (primarily the southern region) is designated as a restricted Exclusion Zone due to ongoing volcanic monitoring by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory. The remaining population resides entirely in the northern third of the island.

  • While Plymouth remains the official (de jure) capital city, the actual seat of government (de facto) is located in Brades in the north, with a major new capital city currently being developed at Little Bay.

  • Prior to 1995, Montserrat had around 11,000 residents. The volcanic crisis forced over two-thirds of the population to evacuate—mostly to the UK. Today, its population stands at roughly 4,300 to 5,000 people.

  • Despite its small area (~39 square miles or 102 sq km), Montserrat is home to rich biodiversity, including the Montserrat Oriole (its national bird), the critically endangered "mountain chicken" frog, and several unique bat and lizard species.

 

Cultural Roots of CARICOM: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas , Barbados, Belize, The Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada,Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

 
schedule a Consultation