Volunteers are keeping a vigilant eye on volcanoes in the West Indies
Community monitoring of seismic activity
Erouscilla Joseph is working busily when I reach her via Zoom in late February. As the director of the Seismic Research Centre (SRC) at the University of the West Indies, she is responsible for a centre that currently monitors at least 13 potentially active volcanoes across the region. And one of them is erupting.
La Soufrière on the island of St Vincent has been undergoing an effusive eruption since December and Joseph’s team is keeping a very close watch. A new dome of molten lava is currently squeezing out between the crater rim of La Soufrière and an old dome formed in an eruption in the late 1970s.
Monitoring the emerging dome is necessary in case an urgent evacuation is required, which could involve up to 22,000 people. And thanks to a 2018 programme led by the SRC and others, 12 communities in the high-risk zones of La Soufrière have been trained to improve their response capacity as part of the Volcano-Ready Communities in St Vincent and the Grenadines Communities project.