Montserrat volcano erupts

There has been an increase in volcanic activity at the Soufrière Hills Volcano in Montserrat. On March 3, 2004 there was a very sizeable explosion.

Persons in the evacuation zone have been told to leave the area immediately, a ccording to an announcement on the government owned Radio Montserrat. Members of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) – a team of top volcanic experts – are currently meeting on the island.

The last major volcanic eruption occurred on July 12, 2003. Th e July event resulted in heavy ash falls throughout the entire island, especially in areas such as Salem, Olveston and Old Towne.

“We have had a fairly sizeable explosion with pyroclastic flows down the east side of the volcano, down the Tar River Valley and possibly down the west side. We cannot see it now because there is a large amount of ash going up in the air,” said Dr Peter Dunkley, head of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) in a brief interview shortly before 3 pm (local) time Wednesday when the explosion occurred.

Dr Dunkley said the explosion column has gone up at least 20,000 feet and still seems to be rising.

The head scientist at the MVO said this was something totally unexpected. “We have had a number of small hybrid earthquakes throughout the early hours of this morning. May be
a couple dozen, but not very large. But this is obviously leading up to whatever this event is. There is an explosion at the moment with the ash going down the east side of the volcano, possibly some may be going down into Gages, but we cannot see because of the ash.”

Dr Dunkley said residents in areas such as Salem, Old Towne and Olveston were fine, but appealed to persons who may be in the day time entry zone to leave immediately.

He said members of the SAC were in the middle of a meeting when the event occurred.

“Our concern really is for people not to be in the day time entry zone,” said Dr Dunkley.