Morne Watt or Watt Mountain is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

consisting of one or more

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with ...

es at the south end of

Dominica Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of t ...

in the eastern

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. With an elevation of , it is the third highest mountain in Dominica after

Morne Diablotins Morne Diablotin is the highest mountain in Dominica, an island-nation in the Caribbean Lesser Antilles. It is the second highest mountain in the Lesser Antilles, after La Grande Soufrière in Guadeloupe. Morne Diablotin is located in the norther ...

and

Morne Trois Pitons Morne, Morné, Mörne, etc. may refer to: People * Morné (given name) * Morné (surname) * Arvid Mörne (1876-1946), a Finnish author and poet Places * Morne a Chandelle, a village in the Sud-Est department of Haiti * Morne-à-l'Eau, a commu ...

. The mountain is home to the Boiling Lake and Valley of Desolation thermal areas, both of which are the best-known volcanic features in Dominica and major tourist attractions in Morne Trois Pitons National Park. Morne Watt was the source of a major eruption about 1,300 years ago that produced

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...

s. A VEI-2 phreatic eruption occurred at the Valley of Desolation thermal area in 1880, which deposited ash away from the mountain. This was followed by a smaller VEI-1 phreatic eruption in July 1997. The 1880 and 1997 explosions are the only historically confirmed Dominican eruptions.

References

Mountains of Dominica Volcanoes of Dominica Holocene stratovolcanoes Active volcanoes Subduction volcanoes Stratovolcanoes of North America {{Dominica-geo-stub

See also

References