Volcanoes that have been quiet for decades are ruining life in the eastern Caribbean, prompting officials to issue alerts in Martinique and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, while scientists are rushing to study activity they say has not been observed for years. days.
The latest warning was issued late Tuesday for La Soufrière volcano in St Vincent and the Grenadines, a chain of islands that hosts more than 100,000 people. Officials reported tremors, strong gas emissions, the formation of a new volcanic dome and changes to its crater lake.
The Caribbean Disaster Management Agency said scientists noticed an “effusive eruption inside the crater on Tuesday, with visible gas and steam.”
The government has warned those living near the volcano to prepare to evacuate if necessary, declaring an orange alert which means the eruptions could occur with less than 24 hours’ notice.
La Soufriere, located near the northern tip of the main island of Saint Vincent, last erupted in 1979, and a previous eruption in 1902 killed about 1,600 people. This happened shortly before Mount Pelele in Martinique erupted and destroyed the city of Saint-Pierre, killing more than 30,000 people.
And Mount Pelee is 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 since the last eruption of the volcano in 1932, Fabrice Fontaine, along with the Martinique Volcanological and Seismological Observatory, told the Associated Press.
While the eastern Caribbean is a long chain of active and extinct volcanoes, volcanologist Erik Klemetti of Denison University in Ohio said activity at Mount Pelée and La Soufrière is unrelated.
“It doesn’t look like a volcano is starting to erupt that others will,” he said. “It falls into the category of coincidence.”
He said the activity is evidence that magma lurks underground and leaks to the surface, although he added that scientists still do not have a very good understanding of what controls how fast this happens.
“The answers are not entirely satisfactory,” he said. “Science is still being researched.”
Klemetti said the most active volcano in recent years in the eastern Caribbean was the Soufriere 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 located on 11 islands, with the remaining two underwater off the island of Grenada, including one called Kick ‘Em Jenny which has been active in recent years.