What effect will the ashes from Montserrat have on neighboring
islands that depend on rainwater and cisterns such as Saba?
Or on Montserrat?
Deanna McDowell
Dear Deanna,
The answer to your question depends on a lot of things, mainly the size of
any explosive eruptions that may take place. If the eruptions remain
relatively small then the effects on neighboring islands will probably be
negligable. The effects on Monsterrat itself may be pretty drastic. Of
course if there is a big explosive eruption and the eruption cloud is
blown by the wind over another island then their water supply could be
contaminated too. The main problem is the ash (which consists of small
glass particles) are bad for you if you swallow them. You can filter the
ash out of water but many times animals die because they, of course, are
not filtering their water. Sometimes the actual chemical composition of
the ash can also contaminate the water and that cannot be filtered out.
An erupton in Iceland not too long ago killed many many sheep because the
fluoride content of the water got too high.
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
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