A dark ash column rises into light-colored weather clouds surrounding Soufrière Hills volcano. This photo was taken on October 20, 1997 from the old volcano observatory 7 km NW of the summit about a minute after the onset of the explosion. Partial collapse of the eruption column soon produced pyroclastic flows that descended the eastern and western flanks. During the course of the eruption that began in 1995 the volcano observatory had to be moved farther away from the volcano several times as the risk from eruptions increased.

Photo by Paul Cole, 1997 (Montserrat Volcano Observatory).

This image is made available under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 license terms.

Soufrière Hills