Plymouth, Montserrat mud and lava would have been scorched and left completely non-arable by the heat of the pyroclastic flows. Plymouth was abandoned and the entire southern half of the island was declared an exclusion zone because of the continuing volcanic activity at the Soufrière Hills. The government of the island was moved to Brades, although Plymouth remains the "de jure" capital. , a new port and capital are under construction at Little Bay, on the island's northwest coast. The destruction of Plymouth caused severe economic problems for the island of Montserrat. Plymouth had been by far the largest settlement on the
Makushin Volcano caldera-forming eruption." Historically, Makushin is one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands, erupting at least two dozen times over the past several thousands years, the last in 1995. Seventeen explosions or eruptions of the Makushin Volcano have been recorded since 1786, though the magnitude has been termed as “small-to-moderate”. These were recorded in the years 1768–69, 1790?, 1792?, 1802, 1818?, 1826–38?, 1844?, 1865, 1867?, 1883, 1907, 1912?, 1926, 1938, 1951, 1952?, 1980, 1987 and 1995. Makushin’s pinnacle last erupted on January 30, 1995, which generated ash extending to an altitude of 2.5 km. In the 1987 eruption,