Professor Richard Robertson while speaking on radio discussed the potential impact of a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water, known as lahars.
“Any of the river valleys that you have on the volcano is going to be potentially impacted by lahars, because essentially they’re just a river that’s come down, as we say in St. Vincent; “the river come down” and in this case when the river come down, the river bringing all the blocks of vegetation and everything else that the volcano has destroyed at the summit and just resting on the ground.” He said.
Robertson said that when the rain falls all the debris is moved into the river, which means that river now has more potential to cause damage because it has a lot more material in it.
Robertson said that when these lahars occur, they have the potential to damage any structures that may be close to these river valleys or in the river valleys themselves.
