earth science

Soufrière Hills

Soufrière Hills is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Soufrière Hills rather than just read about it. In short: The Soufrière Hills () is an active, complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. After a long period of dormancy, the Soufrière Hills volcano became active in 1995 and continued to erupt until 2010.

Key takeaways

Soufrière Hills belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Soufrière Hills to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Soufrière Hills from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Soufrière Hills () is an active, complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. After a long period of dormancy, the Soufrière Hills volcano became active in 1995 and continued to erupt until 2010. Its last eruption was in 2013. Its eruptions have rendered more than half of Montserrat uninhabitable, destroying the capital city, Plymouth, and causing widespread evacuations: about two-thirds of the population have left the island. Chances Peak in the Soufrière Hills was the highest summit on Montserrat until the mid-1990s, but it has since been eclipsed by various rising and falling volcanic domes during the recent volcanic activity. The volcano is andesitic in nature, and the current pattern of activity includes periods of lava dome growth, punctuated by brief episodes of dome collapse which result in pyroclastic flows, ash venting, and explosive eruption. The volcano is monitored by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory. Volcanic gas emissions from this volcano are measured by a multi-component gas analyzer system, which detects pre-eruptive degassing of rising magmas, improving prediction of volcanic activity. The Centre Hills in the central part of the island and the Silver Hills in the north are older volcanic massifs related to the subduction zone. There are three main parts of the island: the central zone, subduction and exclusion.

Name Many volcanoes in the Caribbean are named Soufrière (French for 'sulphur outlet'). These include La Soufrière or Soufrière Saint Vincent on the island of Saint Vincent, and La Grande Soufrière on Guadeloupe.

Early history 2460 BC (± 70 years): An explosive eruption formed the crater at the top of the volcano. 1550 AD (± 50 years): Between 25 and 65 million cubic metres of lava erupted at Castle Peak.

1995–1999 eruption

Seismic activity had occurred in 1897–1898, 1933–1937, and again in 1966–1967, but the eruption that began on 18 July 1995 was the first since the turn of the 20th century. The first phreatic explosion in this new period of activity occurred on 21 August 1995, and such activity lasted for 18 weeks until it caused an andesitic lava dome formation. This was initially confined by a sector-collapse scar, first identified in the 1930's and called English's Crater. This period of activity lasted for another 60 weeks, after which there were major dome collapses and two periods of explosive volcanic eruptions and fountain-collapse pyroclastic flows. The explosion blanketed Plymouth, 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) away, in a thick layer of ash and darkened the sky almost completely. Pyroclastic flows were first observed on 27 March 1996. Although these pyroclastic flows and mudflows were initially confined to unpopulated areas, a major pyroclastic flow on 17 September 1996 caused severe damage to the village of Long Ground, near the volcano. By August 1997, much of the southern part of the island, including most of Plymouth, had been buried by pyroclastic flows. During this period, the southern portion of the island, including the capital Plymouth, was evacuated three times. The first evacuation lasted from 21 August 1995 – 3 September 1995, after the first phreatic eruption. The second evacuation began on 1 December 1995, due to growth of the lava dome. Residents were allowed back to most areas, including Plymouth, on 1 January 1996, but residents of some areas on the eastern flank of the volcano were not allowed back until 15 January 1996. On 3 April 1996, after pyroclastic flows and mudflows began occurring regularly, southern Montserrat, including the capital, Plymouth, was permanently evacuated. Earthquakes continued to occur in three epicentre zones: beneath the Soufrière Hills volcano, in the ridge running to the northeast, and beneath St George's Hill, about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to the northwest. A large eruption on 25 June 1997 resulted in the deaths of nineteen people. The island's airport was directly in the path of the main pyroclastic flow and was completely destroyed. Montserrat's tourist industry also collapsed, although it began partially to recover within fifteen years. The governments of the United Kingdom and Montserrat led the aid effort, including a £41 million package provided to the Montserrat population; however, riots followed as the people protested that the British Government was not doing enough for aid relief. The riots followed a £10 million aid offer by International Development Secretary Clare Short, prompting the resignation of Bertrand Osborne, then Chief Minister of Montserrat, after allegations that he was too pro-British and had not demanded a better offer. The British destroyer HMS Liverpool took a major role in evacuating Montserrat's population to other islands, including Antigua and Barbuda who warned they would not be able to cope with many more refugees. About 7,000 people, or two-thirds of the population, left Montserrat; 4,000 went to the United Kingdom.

Abandoned settlements The following is a list of Montserrat settlements abandoned by the eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano:

†Settlement was destroyed In addition, the W. H. Bramble Airport was destroyed.

Activity since 1999

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Soufrière Hills

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Soufrière Hills claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Soufrière Hills before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Soufrière Hills ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Soufrière Hills

In research: Soufrière Hills appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Soufrière Hills in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Soufrière Hills is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century volcanic events, 21st-century volcanic events, Active volcanoes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Soufrière Hills outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Soufrière Hills in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Soufrière Hills means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Soufrière Hills out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Soufrière Hills in simple terms?

Why does Soufrière Hills matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Soufrière Hills?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Soufrière Hills.