Geography of Montserrat Geography of Montserrat Montserrat is an island in the Caribbean Sea, in the Leeward Islands. Its nearest neighbours in the island chain include Guadeloupe to the south-east, Antigua to the north-east and Nevis to the north-west. The island is 16 km (9.9 mi) long and 11 km (6.8 mi) wide, with a coastline of about 40 km. The island is volcanic and largely mountainous. The Soufrière Hills volcano became active in 1995, causing widespread devastation, including the destruction of the capital and formerly largest settlement on the island, Plymouth. The southern part of the island is now uninhabitable and human
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