The pattern of earthquake swarms followed by explosive events at La Soufriere continues, with the most recent event taking place yesterday. The gap between these explosive events appears to be increasing with there being 52 hours between the last two.
Professor Richard Robertson said that this pattern will continue for the foreseeable future as there is no indication that this is going to change. He said that the last few explosive events have not been as vigorous as the ones we experienced at the start of the eruption. But they still create eruption plumes that have the potential to spread ash to occupied areas as well as the potential for these explosions to create pyroclastic flows on the volcano itself.
The last few ash clouds were mostly blown to the west, sparing SVG and Barbados the ash fall, except for yesterday’s ash clouds which saw the ash head to the south and west of the island.
Robertson said that even if the explosions were to come to a stop, there will still be the possibility of explosions starting again due to new materials wanting to come through, so we would not be out of the woods as yet.
