Hello, and welcome back to Places - Lost in Time, a series that looks back on the tale of places and locations that have existing within living memory or photographic record, but are now lost to the pages of history.
In Episode 3, we turn our attention on the small island of Montserrat in the Caribbean, looking back on the history of this tiny nation and the rise of its capital city Plymouth in the years before its sudden and untimely demise during the 1995 to 1997 Soufrière Hills volcanic eruption.
This video was great fun to make as I've always had a love for geology and plate tectonics, as well as earning an undergrad degree in Geography. :)
All video content and images in this production have been provided with permission wherever possible. While I endeavour to ensure that all accreditations properly name the original creator, some of my sources do not list them as they are usually provided by other, unrelated KZfaqrs. Therefore, if I have mistakenly put the accreditation of 'Unknown', and you are aware of the original creator, please send me a personal message at my Gmail (this is more effective than comments as I am often unable to read all of them): rorymacveigh@gmail.com
The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.
Special thanks to Ross Barclay for allowing me permission to use several of his amazing photos from Plymouth taken in 1991, you can check out his photostream at Flickr to see both these and more great insights into how life was before the eruption:
www.flickr.com/photos/rosco-p...
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Thanks again, everyone, and enjoy! :D
References:
- The Eruption of Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat, from 1995 to 1999
edited by Timothy H. Druitt, B. Peter Kokelaar (I thoroughly recommend reading this, it's a fascinating insight into the chain of events surrounding this eruption)
- British Library (and their respective references)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references)
Music - KZfaq Audio Library
Also, I appreciate that many people may not be fully accustomed to certain geological terms, so I have prepared a short glossary in order to help give a little further information:
- Lahar: A violent and sudden mudflow comprised of water (usually from melted glaciers but can also be formed through groundwater), mud and thick ash. Lahars have a viscosity similar to that of cement, making them extremely destructive as they travel at high speed down the flanks of the volcano, especially in river valleys.
- Phreatic Eruption: An eruption caused by high pressure steam bursting from beneath the ground as rising magma causes high quantities of groundwater to evaporate in a matter of seconds. Phreatic eruptions are often the first signs of a volcano entering an eruptive stage as magma rising within the mountain has become shallow enough to evaporate groundwater.
- Lava Dome: The cap of the main magma outlet, a lava dome is comprised of tightly compacted molten rock that forms a jagged but highly unstable mound. Collapses of the dome release volcanic rock mixed with high temperature gases to form pyroclastic flows.
- Pyroclastic Flow: A cloud of super-heated ash and pumice that travels down the mountainside, accompanied by volcanic gases reaching temperatures of about 1,000 °C (1,830 °F). Unlike conventional landslides, pyroclastic flows travel on a thin layer of volcanic gas that acts as a lubricant, allowing these flows to cover considerable distances across open country and down adjacent valleys. Pyroclastic flows can be caused through the violent ejection of material from the main vent, or collapses of the lava dome.
- Vulcanian Eruption: a type of volcanic eruption characterised by a dense cloud of ash-laden gas exploding from the crater and rising high above the peak. The name is taken from the small volcanic island of Vulcano near Italy, where it was first used by Giuseppe Mercalli, an early Italian volcanologist.