May 20, 2006 Eruption of Soufriere Hills

Name: May 20, 2006 Eruption of Soufriere Hills
Start: 2006-05-20
Location: Soufriere Hills, Montserrat

May 20, 2006 · VEI 3

Soufriere Hills in Montserrat erupted on May 20, 2006 with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 3. It caused a tsunami.

Where it erupted

Soufriere Hills, Montserrat, with its other significant eruptions.

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The eruption

Date: May 20, 2006
Volcano: Soufriere Hills, stratovolcano
Country: Montserrat
Volcanic Explosivity Index: 3, moderate to large (eruption column 3 to 15 km)
Killed by: Pyroclastic flows, surges and direct blasts
Tsunami: Yes: the tsunami it caused
Location: 16.720° N, 62.180° W

The toll

The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this eruption.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

A major lava dome collapse took place at the Soufriere Hills Volcano on the morning of 20 May 2006. The volume of the lava dome was believed to be about 90 million cubic meters and collapsed over a period of 3 hours. A 1 m high tsunami was reported from Deshaies beach in Guadeloupe and swells were detected in Little Bay, Montserrat, and at Jolly Harbour and English Harbour, Antigua.

Other significant eruptions of Soufriere Hills

Every eruption in 2006 The 2000s Soufriere Hills Earthquakes near Soufriere Hills This day in weather history

Sources

Volcanoes and significant eruptions from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. Volcano numbers are the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program’s. NCEI event 4623.