St. Vincent & the Grenadines: La Soufrière remains in a state of unrest

Scientists monitoring the La Soufrière are warning that it continues to be in a state of unrest even though seismic activity remains low since the tremor associated with the explosion and ash venting more than a week ago.

The Seismic Research Centre (SRC) of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in its latest bulletin said that in the last 24 hours, only a few long-period, hybrid and volcano-tectonic earthquakes have been recorded and there was no further tremor.

It said that the seismic stations recorded signals from multiple lahars (mud flows) during a 12-hour period starting on April 28 and that “lahars seem to have taken place in all the valleys that drain from La Soufrière and caused considerable erosion and damage.

“Lahars are fast moving, dense mixture of rocks, ash and vegetation and water originating from a volcano. Some of these were hot lahars which were visibly steaming, having passed through hot volcanic deposits. Many trees were brought down by the lahars that floating logs are a hazard to small craft near shore. The volcano continues to be in a state of unrest,” the SRC warned.

It said explosions with accompanying ashfall, of similar or larger magnitude to those that have already occurred in this eruption, can take place with little or no warning.

The volcano erupted explosively on April 9 forcing the evacuation of thousands of people. -(CMC)