By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 7th May 2021) — A widely circulated video showing a bubbling mud pool at the mountainous range of Mount Liamuiga caused alarm among some citizens, but environment specialist Dr. Eric Browne of the Ministry of Environment explained on NEMA’s “Under The Umbrella” show on Wednesday 5th May that this is a fumarole — a geological feature unrelated to volcanic activity.
“That pool has been there and it’s older than any one of us,” Dr. Browne said. “A fumarole is an area associated with a volcano where heat is going into an area and it causes a liquid area or moist area to show either steam coming up or boiling. There is no lava, no magma, no material coming up. Heat is being transferred from down below and is heating the mud that sits on the heated rocks. As a hot plate, whatever is on it gets heated — it starts boiling.”
Dr. Browne said indicators of an imminent volcanic eruption would be very different: tremors, rumbling sounds, and readings picked up by seismic monitoring stations. “The volcanoes in the Caribbean, including ours, are being monitored by the seismic centre in Barbados. They will know what is happening and can pinpoint any activity. We have a good early warning system in the Caribbean that would alert us and we are confident in it,” he said. NEMA’s National Disaster Coordinator Abdias Samuel noted that St. Vincent’s La Soufrière eruption had been anticipated since 2019 based on seismic data.