All Topics  
Plymouth, Montserrat

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Plymouth, Montserrat
 
 
  Topics Plymouth, Montserrat Topic Home

Plymouth was the capital as well as the only port of entry to Montserrat
Montserrat

Montserrat is British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea....
, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 located in the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
.

Beginning in July 1995, a series of huge eruptions by the Soufrière Hills volcano sent lava flows and ash falls across a wide area of southern Montserrat, including Plymouth. It was immediately clear that the city was in danger; on 21 August 1995, tephra
Tephra

Tephra is air-fall material produced by a Volcano regardless of composition or fragment size. Tephra is typically Rhyolite in composition, as most explosive volcanoes are the product of the more viscosity felsic or high silica magmas....
 fell on Plymouth and in December, residents were evacuated as a precaution.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Plymouth, Montserrat'
Start a new discussion about 'Plymouth, Montserrat'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Plymouth was the capital as well as the only port of entry to Montserrat
Montserrat

Montserrat is British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea....
, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 located in the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
.

Beginning in July 1995, a series of huge eruptions by the Soufrière Hills volcano sent lava flows and ash falls across a wide area of southern Montserrat, including Plymouth. It was immediately clear that the city was in danger; on 21 August 1995, tephra
Tephra

Tephra is air-fall material produced by a Volcano regardless of composition or fragment size. Tephra is typically Rhyolite in composition, as most explosive volcanoes are the product of the more viscosity felsic or high silica magmas....
 fell on Plymouth and in December, residents were evacuated as a precaution. They were allowed back a few months later, but on 25 June 1997 a massive eruption produced pyroclastic surge
Pyroclastic surge

A pyroclastic surge is a fluidized mass of turbulent gas and rock fragments which is ejected during some volcanic eruptions. It is similar to a pyroclastic flow but contains a much higher proportion of gas to rock, which makes it more turbulent and allows it to rise over ridges and hills rather than always travel downhill as pyroclastic flow...
s that killed 19 people and reached nearly to the island's airport. Plymouth was again evacuated. Between 4-8 August, a further series of eruptions destroyed approximately 80% of the city, burying it under of ash. This burned many of the buildings therefore making inhabitation nearly impossible for a sizable portion of the residents. The pyroclastic flows had a heavy viscosity of volcanic lava, volcanic ash, and other volcanic rock types that has a density similar to concrete; therefore, removal of the material would take explosives, bulldozers and other resources too expensive for widespread use in any excavation attempt, especially since the land and soil underneath the hardened mud and lava would have been scorched and left completely non-arable by the flow itself. The city was abandoned and the southern half of the island was declared an exclusion area due to the continued activity of Soufrière Hills. The island's government was moved to Brades, though Plymouth still remains the de jure
De jure

De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".The terms de jure and de facto are used instead of "in principle" and "in practice", respectively, when one is describing politics or legal situations....
 capital since no new capital has been formally created. The destruction of Plymouth caused severe problems for Montserrat. It was the largest settlement on the island, with around 4,000 inhabitants, and it contained most of the island's shops and services in addition to its seat of government. Some of the lost facilities have been recreated elsewhere on Montserrat, but more than two-thirds of the island's population was evacuated overseas and the vast number of those have never returned.

External links


See also



Footnotes