The 26 December (Boxing Day) 1997 sector collapse and debris avalanche at Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat B. VOIGHT1, J-C KOMOROWSKI2, G. E. NORTON15, A. B. BELOUSOV4. M. BELOUSOVA4, G. BOUDON5, P. W. FRANCIS6, W. FRANZ7, P. HEINRICH8, R. S. J. SPARKS4 & S. R. YOUNG1" 1 Geosciences, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA (e-mail:
[email protected]) 2Observatoire Volcanologique de la Soufriere (IPGP), Le Houelmont, Gourbeyre 971113, Guadeloupe 3 British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK 4Institute of Volcanic Geology and Geochemistry, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 683006, Russia 5 Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), 4 Place Jussieu, B 89, 75252 Cedex 05 Paris, France 6 Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6 A A, UK (deceased) 7 Gannett-Fleming Engineers, Harrisburg, PA 17110, USA 8 Laboratoire de Detection et de Geophysique, Commisariat a l'Energie Atomique, BP 12, 91680 Bruyeres-le-Chatel, France 9 Department of Earth Sciences, Bristol University, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK 10 Montserrat Volcano Observatory, Montserrat, West Indies Abstract: The southern sector of Soufriere Hills Volcano failed on 26 December 1997 (Boxing Day), after a year of disturbance culminating in a devastating eruptive episode. Sector collapse produced a c. 50 x l06m3 volcanic debris avalanche, and depressurized the interior of the lava dome, which exploded to generate a violent pyroclaslic density current. The south-directed growth of a lava lobe and build-up of lava-block talus, since early November 1997. brought the hydrothermally weakened sector to a condition of marginal stability. Limit-equilibrium stability analyses and finite-difference stress-deformation analyses, constrained by geomechanical testing of edifice and debris avalanche materials, suggest that the sector collapse was triggered by a pulse of co-seismic exogenous lava shear-lobe emplacement.