Mount Scenery (pronounced like the word 'scenery') is a

dormant volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often ...

in the

Caribbean Netherlands The Caribbean Netherlands (, ) is a geographic region of the Netherlands located outside of Europe, in the Caribbean, consisting of three special municipalities. These are the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba (island), Saba,"Bonair ...

. Its lava dome forms the summit of the Saba island

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 ...

. At an elevation of , it is the highest point in both the

Kingdom of the Netherlands The Kingdom of the Netherlands (, ;, , ), commonly known simply as the Netherlands, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united under the monarch of the Netherlands, who functions as head of state. The re ...

, and, since the

dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles The Netherlands Antilles was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was dissolved on 10 October 2010. After dissolution, the "BES islands" of the Dutch Caribbean— Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba—became ...

on 10 October 2010, the highest point in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

proper. The Saba volcano is potentially dangerous. It is currently classified as "dormant", which means it is an active volcano that is not erupting now, but could erupt in the future. The last eruption was in or around the year 1640 and included explosions and pyroclastic flows. The most recent major eruption was at least 5,000 years ago. According to the U.S.

Global Volcanism Program The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP) documents Earth's volcanoes and their eruptive history during the Quaternary Period of Earth's geologic history, with particular emphasis on volcanic activity during the Holocene Epoc ...

, Saba's volcano is the northernmost active volcano in the Caribbean. On 2 September 2019, Mount Scenery Nature Park was elevated to the status of national park. It has a hiking trail to the summit of the volcano, which is one of Saba's biggest tourist attractions. Along the way up the mountain are the multiple climate zones of Saba, including a

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

at the summit.

History

The formation of Mount Scenery began about 500,000 years ago, when the subaerial part of Saba began forming. About 100,000 years ago, another phase of volcanic activity created the hills that surround The Bottom. It was likely during this time that Mount Scenery's lava dome summit formed. The last major eruption happened about 5,000 years ago, during the

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

era. The volcano was plugged by a massive basalt rock, which is why there is no typical

volcanic crater A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During volcanic eruptions, molten magma and volcanic gases rise from an ...

at Mount Scenery's summit. Volcanic activity on Saba occurred up to the mid-17th century, just before European settlement on the island. Some of this activity may have occurred while

Amerindians In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

were living on the island, as it is believed that Amerindians inhabited the island (at least periodically) for approximately 2,500 years before Europeans arrived. During the early years of European settlement, Mount Scenery (known locally as "The Mountain" through the mid-20th century) was an important location for farming, and through the late 19th and early 20th century, the majority of Saban families were dependent upon "farming The Mountain" or fishing. Common foodstuffs farmed included

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

s, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, tannias, cabbage,

pumpkin A pumpkin is a cultivar, cultivated winter squash in the genus ''Cucurbita''. The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, but does not possess a scientific definition. It may be used in reference to many dif ...

s, and

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

s. Farmers from the village of Windwardside farmed an area of The Mountain called "Big Rendez-Vous", and farmers from the village of St. Johns farmed an area called "Little Rendez-Vous". Today, most of the farmland on Mount Scenery is gone; although ruins of old farmland are visible on some of Saba's hiking trails. In the late 1960s, a stone stairway was built from Windwardside to the summit of Mount Scenery, consisting of 1,064 steps. The stairway was built by hand, step by step, by local Sabans. Today the stairway is known as the Mount Scenery Trail, and is a popular hiking trail. In 2018, Mount Scenery Nature Park was established. The park covers an area of approximately , which is about 26% of Saba's total area. The park supports eco-tourism, maintains the trail system, protects

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

, and preserves historical structures. In 2019, the park was elevated to the status of national park, and is now called Mount Scenery National Park''.''

Volcanic monitoring

Scientific monitoring of Mount Scenery's volcanic activity began in the 1970s. From 1978 to 1983, the Lamont–Doherty Geological Observatory monitored Saba's seismic activity. Between 1992 and 2004, the Seismic Research Center in Trinidad operated a

seismometer A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground displacement and shaking such as caused by quakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The out ...

on Mount Scenery's summit. In 2006, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) began monitoring seismic activity related to Mount Scenery. As of 2018, the KNMI had four seismic monitoring stations on Saba. In 2022, the KNMI installed four cost-effective GNSS units Saba, one of which is located at the top of Mount Scenery. The units are solar-powered, and were installed as part of a pilot study to assess the suitability of cost-effective GNSS use for monitoring volcanic activity.

Hiking

Mount Scenery Trail

The Mount Scenery Trail is Saba's most popular hiking trail. The trail is a strenuous out-and-back trail, which goes up 1064 steps to Mt. Scenery's summit and back. It takes about 90 minutes each way. The main trailhead for Mt. Scenery Trail is located on the road just outside Windwardside, across from the Trail Shop. There are two alternative accesses to the trail: one from the end of the Mountain Road, which reduces the hike by about 25 minutes; and one from the Bud's Mountain Trail, which joins the Mt. Scenery trail at the highest shelter. At the top of the trail, there are three different viewpoints of the island. The lower portion of the trail goes through

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

and secondary rainforest. Here hikers can see tree ferns, Elephant Ears (

Taro Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...

), wild plantains ( Heliconia), Mountain Palm ('' Euterpe precatoria''), and "Mountain Manna" (''Begonia retusa''). The upper of the trail is a

called the Elfin Forest. Here hikers can see Mountain Mahogany, as well as

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

liverworts Liverworts are a group of non-vascular plant, non-vascular embryophyte, land plants forming the division Marchantiophyta (). They may also be referred to as hepatics. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in wh ...

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

es,

fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

s, and other

epiphyte An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

The Elfin Trail

The Elfin Trail is Saba's newest hiking trail, established in 2018. The trail begins on the Sandy Cruz Trail, and ends when it intersects with the Mount Scenery Trail. The hike takes about 1 hour one-way. The trail follows the old paths used by farmers of earlier generations. Hikers of the trail will go through three ecosystems:

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

, and

. Hikers can see Elephant Ears (Taro), Mountain Fuchsia, Maxillaria Orchids, large

Banana trees A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

, and other flora. The trail also provides views of Old Booby Hill, Cove Bay, and the airport.

Communications technology

In 1972, British Cable & Wireless began construction of a microwave relay station at the top of Mount Scenery. The purpose of the microwave relay was to link the islands of

Antigua Antigua ( ; ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the local population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the most populous island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua ...

and Tortolla via Saba. Though no longer in operation, the relay station and tower still sit at the top of Mount Scenery today. JRCC Curaçao (the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard Joint Rescue Coordination Center at Curaçao), has one of its emergency monitoring stations located on Mount Scenery. The station, "DSC Station Mt. Scenery", is a Digital Selective Calling (DSC) station, meaning that it has "equipment that allows mariners to instantly send or receive automatically formatted distress alerts to vessels and coast stations in the area". DSC Station Mt. Scenery provides 24-hour monitoring with a range of . On the lower slopes of Mount Scenery in the village of St. Johns, the St. John's Lighthouse was constructed. The navigational aid is a tower mounted to a 1-story white concrete base. Its light emits two white flashes every 10 seconds.

Gallery

File:Mount Scenery.jpg, Mount Scenery in the clouds, as seen from Windwardside File:Windwardside Village with Mount Scenery.jpg, Mount Scenery as seen from Windwardside File:Saba Hell's Gate (cropped).jpg, Mount Scenery as seen from Lower Hell's Gate File:Third of the Way Up Mount Scenery Trail (6550015583).jpg, One of the Mount Scenery trailheads File:Mount Scenery Trail Steps (6550016605).jpg, Mount Scenery Trail steps File:Anolis sabanus on Philodendron giganteum.jpg, Saba anole on an Elephant ear, on the Mount Scenery Trail File:Marcgravia umbellata, vine and flower.jpg, '' Marcgravia umbellata'' on the Mount Scenery Trail File:Pilea nummulariifolia (and other plants) on a mossy rock.jpg, Creeping Charlie on the Mount Scenery Trail

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scenery, Mount Volcanoes of the Atlantic Ocean Volcanoes of the Netherlands Potentially active volcanoes Landforms of Saba (island) Highest points of countries Hiking trails in the Caribbean Dormant volcanoes 17th-century volcanic events Active volcanoes Stratovolcanoes Volcanoes of the Caribbean