{"id":121710,"date":"2023-11-26T09:19:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T09:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cottontailsonline.com\/?p=121710"},"modified":"2023-11-26T09:19:34","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T09:19:34","slug":"the-beautiful-caribbean-nation-where-a-volcano-is-inflating-the-entire-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottontailsonline.com\/world-news\/the-beautiful-caribbean-nation-where-a-volcano-is-inflating-the-entire-island\/","title":{"rendered":"The beautiful Caribbean nation where a volcano ‘is inflating’ the entire island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ash clouds fill the sky as Montserrat volcano erupts in 1995<\/h3>\n

Montserrat is a tropical paradise, a place filled with mountains which overlook the beautiful Caribbean Sea.<\/p>\n

For many, the island is simply a place for holidays, a place to escape for a few weeks before returning to the humdrum of everyday life.<\/p>\n

For the nearly 5,000 people who call it home, however, things are far bleaker.<\/p>\n

That is because Montserrat is a volcanic island prone to unexpected flare-ups, the worst event in living memory being when two separate incidents saw the country’s entire capital pummelled.<\/p>\n

More recently, scientists have warned that the island itself is “inflating” because of similar activity below ground.<\/p>\n

Don’t miss… <\/strong> Volcano at risk of exploding sparks alert with fears it may give little warning<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Soufriere Hills volcano is extremely volatile and has in recent years come back to life once again.<\/p>\n

In 2018 during one such episode, Professor Jurgen Neuberg, a volcanologist at the University of Leeds, spoke about the GPS data provided by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory and numerical modelling.<\/p>\n

By using this, they could track the volcano’s activity and found that around one cubic metre (35 cubic ft) of fresh magma had been gathering under the island every seven seconds.<\/p>\n

At the time, he told The Guardian: “Except for the gas plume there is nothing visible on the surface, but the instruments show us clearly that the deformation is ongoing and the entire island is still inflating.”<\/p>\n

Two years later, in 2020, volcanoes that hadn’t properly blown their lid since the late 1990s stirred once again.<\/p>\n

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Iceland pinpoints imminent eruption site as earthquakes shake country[LATEST] <\/strong>
Iceland residents living near volcano fear being ‘frozen in time like Pompeii'[INSIGHT] <\/strong><\/p>\n

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