St Vincent: Thermal anomaly detected at La Soufriere volcano
The public has been advised not to visit the La Soufriere volcano in St Vincent and the Grenadines as a low thermal anomaly (temperatures above existing background/base levels) was detected at the summit of the La Soufriere volcano by the NASA FIRMS hot spot detection system on Sunday.
This is according to information received from the Seismic Research Centre at 2:38 pm today.
This low thermal anomaly as detected by NASA FIRMS is currently ongoing.
The National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) in a statement says potential scenarios associated with the detection of the thermal anomaly include a Sulphur fire in the crater, a small phreatic (steam) eruption that may have exposed hot underlying rocks, or the start of new extrusion of lava in the crater.
Analysis of multigas data collected on October 4 by the NEMO Soufriere Monitoring Team, and further reconnaissance via sea along the West Coast today are still underway. Further updates will be given following the analysis of the multigas data and the conclusions from the visual observations.
The volcano still remains at a Green Alert Level – This means that the volcano is quiet; seismic and fumarolic (steam vent) activities are at or below the historical level at this volcano.
No other unusual activity has been observed.
In the meantime, NEMO is advising persons not to visit the volcano at this time and that the La Soufriere Trail remain closed.
It added that there should be no unauthorised visits to the summit until further notice.