Dormant Caribbean volcanoes become active again, residents warned

• Residents of St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been told to be ready to evacuate after a volcano started spewing lava, ash, and gas.
• La Soufrière is the highest point in St. Vincent and is located near the northern tip of the country but has remained dormant for decades before it suddenly became active on Tuesday, AP reported.
• The government of the country, which consists of a chain of islands where over 100,000 people live, issued an orange alert, meaning eruptions could occur with less than 24 hours’ notice.
• Last month authorities from the nearby Caribbean island of Martinique issued a yellow alert due to seismic activity under Mount Pelée, the Independent reported.
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Residents of St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been told to remain alert a Caribbean volcano came back to life.

La Soufrière is the highest point in St. Vincent and is located near the northern tip of the country but remained dormant for decades before beginning to spew ash on Tuesday this week, AP reported.

Steam, gas, and a volcanic dome formed by lava that reached the earth’s surface could also be seen above the volcano, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).

The country’s government, which consists of a chain of islands home to more than 100,000, raised the alert level to orange, meaning that eruptions could occur with less than 24 hours’ notice. 

La Soufrière last erupted in 1979 but did not cause any harm due to warning, while a 1902 eruption led to 1,600 deaths.

In an unrelated incident early last month, authorities from the nearby Caribbean island of Martinique issued a yellow alert due to seismic activity under Mount Pelée, the Independent reported.

Fabrice Fontaine from the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Martinique told AP that it is the first time an alert of its kind has been issued since the volcano last erupted in 1932.

Mount Pelée also erupted in 1902 and killed almost 30,000 people, making it the deadliest eruption in the whole of the 20th century.

In December, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted for the first time since 2018 and created a 600ft deep lava lake, according to NPR.

However, the most active volcanoes in the Americas have been the Soufrière Hills in Montserrat, which have erupted continuously since 1995 and killed at least 19 people in 1997, Erik Klemetti, a volcanologist from Denison University, Ohio, told AP.