No Indication Of A Dome Building Phase At La Soufriere, 20-25 Earthquakes Over The Weekend

(By Ernesto Cooke) – The La Soufriere volcano on the Caribbean island of St Vincent continues to be in a state of unrest.

Dr Adam Stinton on Monday 24th May said, over twenty earthquakes were recorded over the weekend. Stinton is a volcanologist monitoring the volcano from the Belmont observatory.

“Since the morning of Friday 21st, there have been a handful of earthquakes, just around 20-25. None of the earthquakes are large enough to be felt at the moment; the average per day is about 10-15 since the last explosion on April 22nd”.

“We still have persistent steaming and gas venting from various features inside the summit crater.”

Dr Stinton also spoke to recent photos, which show a possible newly formed lake within the crater.

“Based on the satellite imagery that myself and colleagues have been privy to, we don’t see any evidence of a dome growing inside the crater, what the photos may show is either an uplifted area as a result of magma which was extruded to the surface immediately after the last explosion on April 22nd or its just a build-up of ash as a result of that last explosion”.

Dr Stinton said there is no indication that La Soufriere would return to a dome building phase at this present time.

On Friday, the UWI SRC said thermal anomalies, which indicate high temperatures inside the new crater, continue to be detected by the NASA FIRMS alert system.

Measurements of the sulphur dioxide (SO2) flux taken on (May 20th) yielded an average SO2 flux of 461 tons per day.

SO2 flux is an indicator that fresh magma from a deeper source is being degassed.

The La Soufriere volcano went into a phase of explosive eruptions on April 9th, after four months in an effusive state.

The volcano continues to be in a state of unrest, and escalation in activity can still take place with little or no warning

The volcano is at alert level ORANGE.

Photo Source: Eco-Friendly Tourism SVG