THE SOUFRIÈRE HILLS ERUPTS IN MONTSERRAT ISLAND

Montserrat Island, Caribbean Sea

Today, The Grandma has been organizing her travel photos. She has found some photos of Montserrat, the Caribbean island. She visited Montserrat some years ago because she was very interested in knowing this island that takes its name from Montserrat, the most popular Catalan mountain.

On a day like today in 1995, the Soufrière Hills volcano erupts in Montserrat. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee. The Grandma wants to remember this fact that changed the lives of Montserrat inhabitants forever.

The Grandma has remembered her travel across the Caribbean Islands and she has decided to come back with her friends Claire Fontaine, Tina Picotes, Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Jordi Santanyí and Tonyi Tamaki.

The Soufrière Hills volcano is an active, complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.

Many volcanoes in the Caribbean are named Soufrière, in French sulphur outlet. These include La Soufrière or Soufrière Saint Vincent on the island of Saint Vincent and La Grande Soufrière on Guadeloupe. After a long period of dormancy, the Soufrière Hills volcano became active in 1995 and has continued to erupt ever since.

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.

Lava Dome of Soufrière Hills volcano, Montserrat

It 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.

-2460 BCE (± 70 years): An explosive eruption formed English's Crater.

-1550 CE (± 50 years): Between 25 and 65 million cubic metres of lava was erupted at Castle Peak.

More information: Government of Montserrat

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 in Montserrat. When pyroclastic flows and mudflows began occurring regularly, the capital, Plymouth, was evacuated, and a few weeks later a pyroclastic flow covered the city in several metres of debris.

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. This period 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  away, in a thick layer of ash and darkened the sky almost completely.

More information: BBC

Earthquakes continued to occur in three epicenter zones: beneath the Soufrière Hills volcano, in the ridge running to the north-east, and beneath St George's Hill, about 5 kilometres to the north-west.

Montserrat after the Soufrière Hills eruption

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 crashed, although it began 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 people of Montserrat; however, riots followed as the people protested that the British Government was not doing enough to 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 of being too pro-British and not demanding a better offer.

The British destroyer HMS Liverpool took a large role in evacuating Montserrat's population to other islands; this included 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.

On 24 December 2006, streaks of red from the pyroclastic flows became visible. On 8 January 2007, an evacuation order was issued for areas in the Lower Belham Valley, affecting an additional 100 people.

At 11:27 pm local time on Monday 28 July 2008, an eruption began without any precursory activity. Pyroclastic flow lobes reached Plymouth. These involved juvenile material originating in the collapse of the eruption column. Further, a small part of the eastern side of the lava dome collapsed, generating a pyroclastic flow in Tar River Valley. Several large explosions were registered, with the largest at approximately 11:38 pm. The height of the ash column was estimated at 12,000 m above sea level.

 

 More information: The Guardian

The volcano has become one of the most closely monitored volcanoes in the world since its eruption began, with the Montserrat Volcano Observatory taking detailed measurements and reporting on its activity to the government and population of Montserrat. The observatory is operated by the British Geological Survey under contract to the government of Montserrat.

The 9 October 2008 issue of the journal Science suggests that two interconnected magma chambers lie beneath the surface of the volcano on Montserrat -one six kilometres below the surface and the other at 12 kilometres below the surface. They also show a link between surface behaviour and the size of the deeper magma chamber.

Montserrat after the Soufrière Hills eruption

On 5 February 2010, a vulcanian explosion simultaneously propelled pyroclastic flows down several sides of the mountain, and on 11 February 2010, a partial collapse of the lava dome sent large ash clouds over sections of several nearby islands including Guadeloupe and Antigua. Inhabited areas of Montserrat itself received very little ash accumulation through either event.

Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory (BOT) in the Caribbean. The island is in the Leeward Islands, which is part of the chain known as the Lesser Antilles, in the West Indies.

Montserrat measures approximately 16 km in length and 11 km in width, with approximately 40 km of coastline. Montserrat is nicknamed The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of many of its inhabitants.

In 1493, Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Montserrate, after the Virgin of Montserrat in the Monastery of Montserrat, on Montserrat mountain, near Barcelona in Catalonia. Montserrat means serrated mountain in Catalan.

More information: The Culture Trip

An exclusion zone, encompassing the southern half of the island to as far north as parts of the Belham Valley, was imposed because of the size of the existing volcanic dome and the resulting potential for pyroclastic activity. Visitors are generally not permitted entry into the exclusion zone, but a view of the destruction of Plymouth can be seen from the top of Garibaldi Hill in Isles Bay. Relatively quiet since early 2010, the volcano continues to be closely monitored by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.

A new town and port are being developed at Little Bay, which is on the northwest coast of the island. While this construction proceeds, the centre of government and businesses is at Brades.

Montserrat's economy was devastated by the 1995 eruption and its aftermath; currently the island's operating budget is largely supplied by the British government and administered through the Department for International Development (DFID) amounting to approximately £25 million per year. Additional amounts are secured through income and property taxes, licence and other fees as well as customs duties levied on imported goods.

The limited economy of Montserrat, coupled with a population under 5,000, many living in shelters and shacks without utilities, only consumes 1.7 MW of electric power, produced by five diesel generators. Two exploratory geothermal wells have found good resources and the pad for a third geothermal well was prepared in 2016. Together the geothermal wells are expected to produce more power than the island requires.

More information: Dunhill Travel Deals

Ground she's movin' under me, tidal waves out on the sea
Sulfur smoke up in the sky, pretty soon we learn to fly
Let me hear ya now I don't know, I don't know
I don't know where I'm a gonna go when the volcano blow.

Jimmy Buffett

THE TAÍNO: SLAVERY, GENOCIDE AND COLONIZATION

Visiting the Morral de Cabrafeixet, El Perelló

Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma are visiting the Morral de Cabrafeixet Prehistorical Paintings in El Perelló, Baix Ebre.

They continue travelling across the Ebre lands and today they have wanted to visit this amazing place recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

During the travel from Horta de Sant Joan to El Perelló, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her interesting First Certificate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 9). 

More information: Crime and the law I, II & III

The visit has been a wonderful present for The Grandma who loves Ancient Cultures. She has discovered these Prehistorical paintings in Cabrafeixet and she has enjoyed with Joseph's explanations about them. While Claire has been taking some photos to remember this unforgettable experience, The Grandma has been thinking in these Ancient Cultures and their legacies.

On a day like today, it has been impossible for her to not think in the American Native Cultures in general, and in the Taíno community in particular.

More information: Catalunya

When Christopher Columbus "discovered" America in 1492, there were more than 250,000 taíno in the Caribbean Islands. In 1508, there were only 60,000. In 1531, there were only 600.

The history of the Taíno culture is only an example of lots of communities which were destroyed, its inhabitants were killed and its treasures (especially gold and silver) were stolen by the colonizers.

More than 90 milions of people were killed since the arrival of the Europeans, especially by Castillian and Portuguese in one of the greatest genocides of the human history. Then, on a day like today, there is nothing to celebrate and there are lots of things to learn, lots of cultures to respect and protect and enough time to reivindicate on this day celebrated in America like the Day of the Indigenous Resistance.

The Taíno communities

The Taíno were an indigenous people of the Caribbean. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Jamaica, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas and the northern Lesser Antilles.

The Taíno were the first New World peoples to encounter Europeans, during the voyages of Christopher Columbus, starting in 1492. They spoke the Taíno language, an Arawakan language.

The ancestors of the Taíno originated in South America, and the Taíno culture as documented developed in the Caribbean. Taíno groups were in conflict with the Island Caribs of the southern Lesser Antilles. At the time of contact, the Taíno were divided into several groups. Western Taíno groups included the Lucayans of the Bahamas, the Ciboney of central Cuba, and the inhabitants of Jamaica. The Classic Taíno lived in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, while the Eastern Taíno lived in the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles.

More information: Taíno Museum

At the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492, there were five Taíno chiefdoms in Hispaniola, each led by a principal Cacique (chief), to whom tribute was paid. The Taíno name for Hispaniola was Ayiti, land of high mountains, which is the source of the name Haiti.

Cuba was dived into 29 chiefdoms, many of which have given their name to modern cities, including Havana, Batabanó, Camagüey, Baracoa, and Bayamo.

Taíno communities ranged from small settlements to larger centers of up to 3,000 people. They may have numbered 2 million at the time of contact. 

The Taíno and the colonizers

The Spanish conquered various Taíno chiefdoms during the late 15th and early 16th century. Warfare and harsh enslavement by the colonists decimated the population.

European diseases also played a major role; a smallpox epidemic in Hispaniola in 1518-1519 killed almost 90% of the Taíno who were not already dead. The surviving Taíno were intermarried with Europeans and Africans, and were incorporated into the Spanish colonies.

The Taíno were considered extinct by the end of the century. However, since about 1840, there have been attempts to create a quasi-indigenous Taíno identity in rural areas of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico. This trend accelerated among Puerto Rican communities in the mainland United States in the 1960s. At the 2010 U.S. census, 1,098 people in Puerto Rico identified themselves as Puerto Rican Indian, 1,410 identified as Spanish American Indian, and 9,399 identified as Taíno. In total, 35,856 Puerto Ricans considered themselves Native American.

More information: The Taíno Genocide (1492-1518)

A direct translation of the word Taíno signified men of the good. The Taíno people, or Taíno culture, has been classified by some authorities as belonging to the Arawak, as their language was considered to belong to the Arawak language family, the languages of which were present throughout the Caribbean, and much of Central and South America.

Taíno art in Los Haitises, Dominican Republic

Taíno society was divided into two classes: naborias (commoners) and nitaínos (nobles). These were governed by male chiefs known as caciques, who inherited their position through their mother's noble line. 

The nitaínos functioned as sub-caciques in villages, overseeing naborias work. Caciques were advised by priests/healers known as bohiques. Caciques enjoyed the privilege of wearing golden pendants called guanín, living in square bohíos, instead of the round ones of ordinary villagers, and sitting on wooden stools to be above the guests they received.

Bohiques were extolled for their healing powers and ability to speak with gods. They were consulted and granted the Taíno permission to engage in important tasks.

Taíno staples included vegetables, fruit, meat, and fish. There were no large animals native to the Caribbean, but they captured and ate small animals, such as hutias and other mammals, earthworms, lizards, turtles, and birds. Manatees were speared and fish were caught in nets, speared, trapped in weirs, or caught with hook and line. Wild parrots were decoyed with domesticated birds, and iguanas were taken from trees and other vegetation. The Taíno stored live animals until they were ready to be consumed: fish and turtles were stored in weirs, and hutias and dogs were stored in corrals.

More information: National Geographic

Due to this lack of large game, the Taíno people became very skilled fishermen. One technique was to hook a remora, also known as a suckerfish, to a line secured to a canoe and wait for the fish to attach itself to a larger fish or even a sea turtle.

Taíno groups in the more developed islands, such as Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Jamaica, relied more on agriculture, farming and other jobs. Fields for important root crops, such as the staple yuca, were prepared by heaping up mounds of soil, called conucos. This improved soil drainage and fertility as well as delaying erosion, allowing for longer storage of crops in the ground.

Taíno spirituality centered on the worship of zemís. A zemí is a spirit or ancestor. The major Taíno Zemis are Yúcahu and Atabey. Yúcahu, which means spirit of cassava, was the Zemi of cassava, the Taínos' main crop, and the sea. Atabey, mother of Yúcahu, was the zemi of the moon, fresh waters and fertility.

Taíno community in Cuba, 1919

Columbus and his crew were the first Europeans to encounter the Taíno people, as they landed in The Bahamas on October 12, 1492. After their first interaction, Columbus described the Taínos as a physically tall, well-proportioned people, with a noble and kind personality.

In 1511, several caciques in Puerto Rico, such as Agüeybaná II, Arasibo, Hayuya, Jumacao, Urayoán, Guarionex, and Orocobix, allied with the Carib and tried to oust the Spaniards.

The revolt was suppressed by the Indio-Spanish forces of Governor Juan Ponce de León. Hatuey, a Taíno chieftain who had fled from Hispaniola to Cuba with 400 natives to unite the Cuban natives, was burned at the stake on February 2, 1512.

In Hispaniola, a Taíno chieftain named Enriquillo mobilized over 3,000 Taíno in a successful rebellion in the 1520s. These Taíno were accorded land and a charter from the royal administration. Despite the small Spanish military presence in the region, they often used diplomatic divisions and, with help from powerful native allies, controlled most of the region. In exchange for a seasonal salary, religious and language education, the Taíno were required to work for Spanish and Indian land owners. This system of labor was part of the encomienda.

The Taíno population estimates vary a great deal, from a few hundred thousand up to 8,000,000. They had no resistance to Old World diseases, notably smallpox. The encomienda system brought many Taíno to work in the fields and mines in exchange for Spanish protection, education, and a seasonal salary. 

Under the pretense of searching for gold and other materials, many Spaniards took advantage of the regions now under control of the anaborios and Spanish encomenderos to exploit the native population by seizing their land and wealth. It would take some time before the Taíno revolted against their oppressors.

More information: Smithsonian

There were 60,000 people living on this island when I arrived in 1508, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, 

over three million people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this?

 Bartolomé de las Casas