Effects of the Montserrat Volcano felt on Dominica

An email sent out by the school:

As you have seen there is ash in Dominica at the moment. The volcano in Montserrat had a partial dome collapse yesterday and this is the ash from that event. The ash is not from any of volcanoes in Dominica, none are erupting at this time. If you have a respiratory illness or chronic condition please stay indoors as much as possible. If your condition becomes worse, contact the health clinic at ###-#### immediately. For more information regarding the Montserrat volcano you can go to www.mvo.ms

I never check the news (I haven't watched TV since I arrived on Dominica), so I don't know how much information the outside world has. But I just checked www.cnn.com and it looks like they have a few minor stories about the volcano on Montserrat, mostly about canceled flights from Puerto Rico.

Apparently, part of the dome of the Montserrat Volcano collapsed and the pressure of the released gas shot ash 50,000 feet into the air. Just to share a little Caribbean geography, Montserrat is about 60 miles north of Dominica, with Guadalupe in between. This morning I got up for the Histology practical exam, looked outside and thought it might rain. It turns out that the winds had shifted and the clouds I saw was the trailing ash cloud from Montserrat.



It's kind of funny because, just walking around, you could tell the local Dominicans already knew what was up. They're the ones wearing the face masks everywhere and all the students are breathing it all in like idiots. Eventually, Ross set up a place where people could pick up masks of their own, if they wanted.

(You can't see it very well, but the ash had been falling all night and day. The granules on the windshield are the ash being wiped by the windshield wipers. This is just a shot of a car, but the ash is everywhere, on grass and pavement.)

(And if you're wondering from the quote above, "The ash is not from any of volcanoes in Dominica, none are erupting at this time." For such a tiny island, Dominica has the highest concentration of volcanoes in the world. There's a reason why this island is the most mountainous island in the Caribbean.