La Grande Soufrière
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La Grande Soufrière ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; Template:Langx), or simply Soufrière (Template:Langx), is an active stratovolcano on the French island of Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe. It is the highest mountain peak in the Lesser Antilles, rising Template:Convert high.<ref name="readersnatural">Template:Cite book</ref>
The last magmatic eruption was in 1530±30 during which the current lava dome was emplaced.<ref name="Boudon_etal_2008">Template:Cite journal</ref>
More recent eruptions have been phreatic in type.<ref name="Feuillard_etal_1983">Template:Cite journal</ref> On February 8, 1843, an eruption of La Grande Soufrière caused by an earthquake killed over 5,000 people.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Significant seismic activity in 1976 led to a mass evacuation of the island's 72,000 residents.<ref name="readersnatural" /> There was a bitter, and well-publicized, controversy between scientists Claude Allègre and Haroun Tazieff on whether evacuation should occur. Allègre held that inhabitants should be evacuated, just in case, while Tazieff held that the Soufrière was harmless. The prefect decided to evacuate, erring on the side of caution. The volcano erupted on August 30, 1976, but much less severely than predicted by the Allègre side.<ref name="readersnatural" /> There were no fatalities and no significant damage, except for the large cost of the evacuation.<ref name="readersnatural" />
While the island was deserted, the German filmmaker Werner Herzog traveled to the abandoned town of Basse-Terre to find a peasant who had refused to leave his home on the slopes of the volcano. His journey is recorded in the film La Soufrière.
