Towns and villages downstream of Montserrat's Soufriere Hills volcano have been abandoned for almost a decade now. Of around 12,000 people who once lived on this Caribbean island, two-thirds left. The others live crammed into the island's northern half, while the south, including the former capital, Plymouth, remains an exclusion zone where nobody may stay overnight. By day, however, the exclusion zone is far from deserted. On many of the hills and valleys alongside the volcano, cows and donkeys still graze. Farmers have permission to visit their property, and many do, some in the hope of being able to resettle there one day. But in July 2003, even this tenuous existence was thrown into disarray, when the volcano staged its largest eruption since it became active in 1995. This led to the unexpected deaths of more than 40 animals, and, as it turns out, an interesting geological discovery.
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