A long time ago in the southern Caribbean an undersea volcano erupted from the ocean’s floor. Spewing its lava, the volcano built an undersea mountain that grew higher and higher, eventually growing above the surface of the sea.
This was the beggining of the island now we called “Monserrat“.
Montserrat is a lush, mountainous island in the Caribbean Sea, located in the Leeward Islands. It measures approximately 16 km long and 11 km wide, giving 40km of coastline.

The Soufriere Hills Volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat began erupting in 1995.The activity of the volcano is monitored by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, which has been managed by the BGS.

The Soufriere Hills volcano is composed of a lava dome complex. It is not a symmetrical cone shape, as is commonly associated with volcanoes, because the erupted lava is very viscous or sticky. As viscous lava is not very fluid, when it is extruded it cannot flow away from the vent easily. Instead it piles up on top of the vent forming a large dome shaped mass of material.