Montserrat of Montserrat is approximately east-southeast of Puerto Rico and southwest of Antigua. The island lies north-northwest of Suriname and French Guiana (France). It comprises and is gradually increasing owing to the buildup of volcanic deposits on the southeast coast. The island is long and wide, with rock cliffs rising above the sea and a number of smooth bottomed sandy beaches scattered among coves on the western (Caribbean) side of the island. Montserrat has two islets, Virgin and Statue Rock. In July 1995, Montserrat's Soufrière Hills volcano, dormant for centuries, erupted and soon buried the island's capital, Plymouth, in more than
Barren Island (Andaman Islands) National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) spotted the volcano erupting on 23 January 2017. Abhay Mudholkar, the head of the team, said, "The volcano is erupting in small episodes of about five to ten minutes. During the day, only ash clouds were observed. However, after sundown, red lava fountains were spewing from the crater into the atmosphere and hot lava flowed streaming down its slopes." Based on Ar-Ar dating of samples from Barren Island it is now established that the oldest subaerial lava flows of the volcano are 1.6 million years old and the volcano is located on an oceanic crust