By: Staff Writer
April 13, 2021
St Vincent and the Grenadines La Soufriere volcano will continue to have eruptions says lead expert on the ground as pyroclastic flows now pouring from the volcano.
Dr Richard Robertson, professor of geology and past director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWISRC), speaking on a YouTube interview last Friday, said: “Essentially you have ongoing eruptions and an ongoing explosive eruptions means that there will be periods during which there would be significant output of plumes of ash rising above the volcano.”
Over the weekend, La Soufriere had an explosive eruption after having undergone months of an effusive eruption. Half of the island of St Vincent is covered in ash from the eruption as well as parts of Barbados is registering ash-fall coming from La Soufriere.
Dr Robertson also said: “This volcano, it continued to emit some steam and ash and stuff like that, but not in a very vigorous way.
“But then at about 2:45pm this afternoon, it started pulsing again and that pulsing had started at 10am had actually went on for a little bit longer, and it was a continuous pulsing of ash and gas and steam from the volcano.”
No reports on the ground have recorded any large explosions, but persons have indicated they have been seeing pulses from the volcano and the chuffing of massive amounts of ash and gasses from the top of La Soufriere as small rocks and ash have been poured over the Northern part of St Vincent.
The plume went up this afternoon from La Soufriere was 51,000 ft said SVG Aviation Authority, “That was higher than the one this morning, which I think went up to 29,000 ft,” said Dr Robertson.
The ash will vary in size depending on what part of SVG residents are on, Dr Robertson said and that if you are in the Kingstown area you will get a light ash and if you are nearer to the volcano, persons would see the gritty hard ash.
People in Barbados are getting a heavy, thick ash that has clogged up gutters and turned daylight into pure darkness.
Weather reports had indicated that because of the winds that were blowing at this time that Barbados, which is on the Eastern side of SVG in the Atlantic, would be receiving heavy downpours of ash and so too “may” St Lucia, who is directly north of SVG.
Dr Robertson further warned that as other explosions from the volcano comes and you see plumes fly into the air that persons watching should “be prepared for the ash to spread,” and that people should get into a habit of expecting that as La Soufriere continues to pulsate and explode.
At this time no one has seen lava flow from the volcano despite pyroclastic flows now pouring out from La Soufriere. The last eruption was at 4:14am on Monday morning. No one is reported injured or dead as a result of the volcano yet and researchers cannot predict how long these eruptions will continue, but are encouraging persons to take the necessary precautions and evacuate the red zones immediately if they have not done so already.
