Some Areas Of Northern St Vincent Still Uninhabitable Following Explosive Eruptions At La Soufriere.

(By Ernesto Cooke) – Dr. Adam Stinton, head of the La Soufriere monitoring team, said at the moment, indeed in the foreseeable future, permanent reoccupation for parts of the Red zone is not possible at this time.

“The main reason for that is for us to be confident that the La Soufriere is not going to change its current state and become more active again; we need to restrengthen our monitoring networks.”

Stinton said they had lost some instruments due to explosions that occurred in April 2021.

“We are currently in the process of organizing plans and beginning work to repair and reinstall seismic instruments along with a permanent gas instrument.”

“We need to be able to get these instruments in, get them up and running, and get data back to the observatory in real-time for us to start considering the next stage of the reoccupation of the Northern part of the island.”

Stinton said a strong monitoring network must be in place, stating that the team must pick the slightest indication that something may change.

Steam continues to be emitted at the summit of the La Soufriere volcano, while the last gas measurements yielded 460 tons of SO2.

“It is possible that the unrest at the crater or the activity currently taking place could continue for weeks if not longer. So we have to remain vigilant and keep an eye on La Soufriere”.

“Once the unrest continues, and it shows no signs of increasing or decreasing, I think its reasonable to say that people should not be reoccupying the Red Zone permanently.”

A report on Monday 24th May indicated that low-level earthquakes continue to be recorded.