July 14 -- The eastern Caribbean island of Montserrat has suffered more than its fair share of natural disasters.
In 1989, Hurricane Hugo struck the island, causing massive destruction with more than 90 percent of the island’s structures damaged. In 1995, just as the island started to recover, the island’s Soufrière Hills volcano burst into life, entering a cycle of eruptive activity that continues to the present day. The eruption had an enormous impact on the island, killing 19 people, leaving two-thirds of the island nation uninhabitable and in 1997 completely burying the capital city, Plymouth, under yards of volcanic rock, ash and mud. More than half the island’s population of around 10,000 were compelled to emigrate.
Today, however, Montserrat is putting this violent geological heritage to good use. Known as the “Emerald Isle” of the Caribbean because of its historical ties with the Irish, Montserrat (in fact a British dependent territory) is poised to become one of the world’s few metaphorically “green” and sustainable islands. The same geological forces unleashed by the Soufrière Hills volcano are being harnessed to power the island’s electricity grid from a geothermal source. >>View Article