Volcanic edifice collapses generate some of Earth's largest landslides. How such unloading affects the magma storage systems is important for both hazard assessment and for determining long-term controls on volcano growth and decay. Here we present a detailed stratigraphic and petrological analyses of volcanic landslide and eruption deposits offshore Montserrat, in a subduction zone setting, sampled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 340. A large (6-10km(3)) collapse of the Soufriere Hills Volcano at similar to 130ka was followed by explosive basaltic volcanism and the formation of a new basaltic volcanic center, the South Soufriere Hills, estimated to have initiated <100years after collapse. This basaltic volcanism was a sharp departure from the andesitic volcanism that characterized Soufriere Hills' activity before the collapse. Mineral-melt thermobarometry demonstrates that the basaltic magma's transit through the crust was rapid and from midcrustal depths. We suggest that this rapid ascent was promoted by unloading following collapse.