A brief history of St. Vincent’s La Soufriere Volcanic eruptions

La Soufriere Volcano, which is currently active as of late 2020 and into 2021, is the largest but youngest volcano on St. Vincent. It occupies the northernmost third of the island. It overlays volcanic remains that have been actively creating the base rock of St. Vincent for over some 700 thousand years. The main volcano consists of an older strato-cone and a younger pyroclastic cone. This latter cone has been the source of historical eruptions after AD 1700 up to the one that is active today.

The first historical eruption of the volcano took place in March 1718, and then again, on 30th April 1812 an eruption produced major explosions. Nearly a century went by before the next eruption, a hugely destructive event that began in earnest on 7th May 1902. This was within 24 hours of the eruption of Montange Pele in Martinique.

There was confusion as the news of the eruptions spread around the world about which volcano was which. The devastation and 28,000 deaths in the city of St. Pierre on Martinique overshadowed the reports from La Soufriere. Much of the northern end of St. Vincent was devastated by this major eruption and approximately1565 lives were lost.

  

After 1903, St Vincent returned to a state of calm which wasn’t disturbed until 1971, when a remarkably quiet eruption built a new lava dome within the flooded crater of the volcano. The lake was then largely ejected during a series of explosive eruptions in 1979 and the dome was replaced with another.

The 1979 eruption began with only a very short period of unrest, starting with a strong local earthquake on April 12. Eruptive activity began with a series of short-lived but violent explosions and that lofted a series of ash plumes, high into the sky on Good Friday, April 13, 1979. Evacuation of people living in this zone commenced as is happening again at this time.

The explosions heralded two weeks of vigorous activity that peaked with an 18 km high plume on April 17, and ended, with the reduction of measurable seismicity on April 29. After this, the eruption switched to the quiet extrusion of lava, slowly forming the dome that sat in the centre of the crater for some 42 years. This was until the current build up of extruded lava began in late 2020 and surrounded much of the 1979 dome.
The seismic activity began on April 8, the first since 1979.

And as of 9 April 2021 the UWI Seismic research confirmed that at 8:41 am EST, an explosive eruption began at the La Soufrière volcano. St Vincent’s National Emergency Management Organisation said the volcano has ‘moved into an explosive state’ with plumes up to 8km high. Now a new chapter begins upon the unpredictable mountain.

From Correspondent reports

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