St Vincent Volcano “Not More Active”

Above: La Soufriere on Thursday (Photo: SVG)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Vincent and the Grenadines’ National Emergency Management Organization received a number of calls Thursday from citizens asking if the country’s La Soufriere volcano was erupting, with some accounts indicating odors of sulphur and smoke billowing from the volcano.

But there is no unusual activity or increase in seismic activity at the volcano, according to the Seismic Research Centre in Trinidad, which informed Howie Prince, Director of NEMO.

NEMO, which said the county continued to be affected by a trough system producing dense clouds and fogs, said rumors that the La Soufriere volcano had become more active were “not true.”

The organization attributed the “illusion of smoke” to lightning flashes combined with low clouds and fog.

La Soufriere, which is also known as Soufriere St Vincent, is the highest peak in the country. Its most recenty violent eruption was in 1979.