Email sent to the staff at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (November 25, 2002)

To the IDIOTS working at the MVO:

You are a bunch of contemptible subhuman jerks. Even if it wasn’t your plan to wreck the Montserrat economy and make people afraid to come to Montserrat – this is the effect of your so called “scientific” closing of all areas remotely near the Belham Valley. With the exception of course of your new Villa or “Observatory above Happy Hills.

You idiots banned a very old man from living in his home in Old Towne – and more than likely the deep depression of his final days was due to the actions of you UK idiots. I hope that when you are really old, some young idiots do exactly to you what you have done to this old man, as well as other people who have been locked out of their homes. The actions and behavior of the MVO staff is far more political than it is scientific. For this reason I consider you all to be whores for the government of the UK who seems determined to do more damage to Montserrat than the volcano already has.

Seismicity

Sampling

GPS

Gas Monitoring

Photo by Matt Watson

Photo Courtesy of Ricky Herd

Photo courtesy of Lizzette Rodriguez

The “Sunday, 16 January 2005, 3am Event”… “The impact and scale of the 16 January event are similar to those of the 1 October event that showered the September 1984 lobe with ballistics, damaging a seismometer and GPS station.” –W. Scott

Drop in seismicity following the October 5 steam-and-ash emission

Earthquakes are remarkably shallow

1980-86 Dome

Glacier

Old rock-fall debris avalanche material

N

Older Crevasses

USGS Photo by John Pallister26 September 2004

9/30/2004: Cracks indicating uplift, observed on what geologists now nicknamed “Loaf”

1984 block nicknamed “Opus”

USGS Photo by Dan Dzurisin and Mike Poland

October 1

USGS Photo by John Pallister

Photo provided my M. Trabant, taken from a passing commercial airliner on October 5.

View looking southwest

This image represents a differencing between the year 2000 and the 4 October 2004 Photogrammetric DEMs.

Figure by Steve Schilling and Linda Mark

In-house, short-fuse instrumentation development led by Rick LaHusen. One of the sling-loaded “Spyder” packages dropped inside the crater.

USGS Photo by Jeff Wynn

Slinging in a “Spider”…

GPS antenna

Communications Antenna

USGS Photo by John Pallister

Can you see it? This image gives you a sense of the scales involved here…

USGS Photo by Jeff Wynn

“Dome-Cam”, compliments of our brothers and sisters at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory

USGS Photo by Gene Iwatsubo

21 October: expanding south towards the crater wall

USGS Photo by Steve Schilling

October 12

USGS Photo by Jeff Wynn

Magma supply rate by late October 2004 is calculated at > 7 cubic meters/sec

USGS Photo by Dave Schneider

Preliminary Sketch-map of the Geology as of 27 October (by D. Sherrod) superimposed on 14 Oct DEM

USGS Photo by Steve Schilling29 October

Your test for the day:

Find the helicopter

“CLF4” Spider-- moved 30+ m south and 12 m west -- in 5 days

4 November

USGS Photo by John Pallister, 29 November 2004

In order to get measurable repeat images, a photo station was installed at “Brutus”, a dangerous point on the east rim of MSH. A tripod is well-emplaced, and cameras will be periodically positioned on it. No camera system we are aware of has enough power to heat it and keep it free of rime-ice during the brutal winters in the northern Cascades.

USGS Photo by John Pallister, 29 November 2004

Old Dome

“Whaleback”?

?

“Brutus”

November 29

USGS Photo by Dan Dzurisin

USGS Photo by Dan Dzurisin – Deploying the “Photo Spyder” – 14 January 2005 – Whaleback in background

USGS Photo by Dan Dzurisin – Liftoff with Photo Spyder – 14 January 2005

USGS Photo by John Pallister - A new L1 GPS Spyder installed on 14 January 2005 (and trashed by the 16 January event)

USGS Photo by John Pallister, 1 February 2005

A comparison: the New Dome now stands several hundred meters higher than the Old Dome

September 2006