SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Volcanoes that have been silent for decades are reverberating in the eastern Caribbean, prompting officials to issue alerts in Martinique and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as scientists rush to study activity they say no. it has not been observed in years.
The latest warning was issued on Tuesday afternoon by the volcano La Soufrière in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a chain of islands that hosts more than 100,000 people. Officials reported tremors, heavy gas emissions, the formation of a new volcanic dome and changes to the crater lake.
The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency said scientists observed an “effusive eruption inside the crater, with visible gas and steam,” on Tuesday.
The government warned people living near the volcano to prepare to evacuate if necessary, and declared an orange alert meaning eruptions could occur less than 24 hours in advance.
La Soufrière, located near the northern end of the main island of Saint Vincent, last erupted in 1979 and a previous eruption in 1902 killed some 1,600 people. This occurred shortly before the mountain of Martinique. Pelée exploded and destroyed the city of Saint-Pierre, killing more than 30,000 people.
Mt. Pelee is also active again. In early December, officials in French Caribbean territory issued a yellow alert due to seismic activity under the mountain. It was the first such alert issued since the volcano last erupted in 1932, Fabrice Fontaine told The Associated Press with the Martinique Volcanological and Seismological Observatory.
While the eastern Caribbean is a long chain of active and extinct volcanoes, volcanologist Erik Klemetti, of Denison University in Ohio, said the activity at Mt. Pelee and La Soufriere are unrelated.
“It’s not like one volcano is starting to erupt that others will,” he said. “Included in match category”.
He said the activity is evidence that magma hides underground and percolates to the surface, although he added that scientists still do not fully understand what controls how quickly this happens.
“The answers are not entirely satisfactory,” he said. “It’s the science that’s still being investigated.”
Klemetti said the most active volcano in recent years in the eastern Caribbean has been the Soufrière hills in Montserrat, which has erupted continuously since 1995, destroying the capital Plymouth and killing at least 19 people in 1997.
Seventeen of the 19 living volcanoes in the eastern Caribbean are on 11 islands, and the remaining two are underwater near the island of Granada, including a so-called Kick ‘Em Jenny that has been active in recent years.