St. Vincent volcano erupts a day after thousands on the Caribbean island were ordered to evacuate

Kelly McLaughlin
·1 min read
La Soufriere erupting on St. Vincent.
La Soufriere erupting on St. Vincent. UWI Seismic Research Centre

  • La Soufriere, a volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, erupted on Friday.

  • Plumes reached 4.97 miles, and ash spread across the island, local emergency services said.

  • It's the volcano's first eruption since 1979.

  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

La Soufriere, a volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, has erupted on Friday, the National Emergency Management Organization of St. Vincent and the Grenadines confirmed on Twitter.

"La Soufriere has moved into an explosive state. Plumes up to eight kilometers," the agency said.

NEMO SVG said minutes after the volcano erupted that ash fell at Argyle International Airport, on the other side of the 133-square-mile island.

Officials from NEMO encouraged people to leave the "red zone" of the volcano immediately, and as of Friday morning officials were still evacuating residents from the island.

Friday's eruption marked the first time the mountain has erupted since April 1979.

Read the original article on Insider

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  • Large Plumes of Smoke Tower Over St Vincent Volcano

    Huge plumes of smoke towered over the Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday, April 8, amid evacuation orders issued for the area surrounding a volcano, La Soufriere.Footage posted by the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre shows a cloud hovering over the volcano, which is located on the island of St Vincent.Residents in “red zones” near La Soufriere volcano, in north of St Vincent, were ordered to leave, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said on Thursday. Credit: UWI Seismic Research Centre via Storyful

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    Authorities ordered mandatory evacuations on the island of Saint Vincent Thursday evening, ahead of a major volcanic eruption on Friday morning. Saint Vincent is a volcanic island located in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean and is home to La Soufrière, the island's largest volcano. Around 8:30 a.m., local time, on Friday, the volcano underwent what the scientists at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Seismic Research Center called an "explosive eruption," spewing ash high into the air. Photo from the explosive eruption that occurred at La Soufriere, SVG at 8:41 am local time. Ash has begun to fall on the flanks of the volcano and surrounding communities including Chateaubelair and Petite Bordel. (Photo/UWI Seismic Reasearch Centre) The National Emergency Management Organisation of Saint Vincent reported later in the morning that the ash plume had reached 8 km (about 5 miles) into the air, and ash had fallen at Argyle International Airport. Geologist Richard Robertson told News 784 in Saint Vincent on Friday that the volcano had returned to a quieter period, but more eruptions are expected to follow. "If there is a much bigger explosion, the ash can spread further to the south," Robertson said, adding that, "This could continue for days or weeks, and monitoring will continue." The UWI Seismic Research Center first noticed gases spewing from the dome of the volcano on Thursday morning. Smoke spews from the glowing dome of the La Soufriere volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, April 8, 2021, in this image obtained from the University of West Indies Seismic Research Center. (Photo/The UWI Seismic Research Centre/ via REUTERS) As seismic activity continued and became more intense, with magma visible near the surface later on Thursday, the country's National Emergency Management Organization raised the island's alert level from orange to red, according to NPR, meaning that eruption was considered "imminent". Around 6:00 p.m. Thursday, the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, announced in a press conference the evacuation order for residents in "red zones" on the northeast and northwest sides of the island. This evacuation includes roughly 16,000 people on the island, according to WFAA, a WABC affiliate in Dallas, Texas. I have issued an evacuation order to all residents living in the RED ZONES on the North East and the North West of the island. All residents are asked to act accordingly with immediate effect to ensure their safety and that of their families. pic.twitter.com/AJQlCDtOPg— Ralph Gonsalves (@ComradeRalph) April 8, 2021 Government-led evacuations immediately began, but they were to be assisted by nearby cruise line ships, arriving Friday, to help get people to safety. However, given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, evacuations are more complicated than usual. CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP Gonsalves said in his press conference that people have to be vaccinated before boarding a cruise ship or to go to another island. The minister also highly recommended those taking shelter in Saint Vincent be vaccinated. Even on Friday morning, fresh magma near the surface of the volcano left the sky aglow. The start of a new day. Long exposure photo taken by volcano seismologist Roderick Stewart at the Belmont Observatory...Posted by UWI Seismic Research Centre on Friday, April 9, 2021 According to CNN, the La Soufrière volcano on Saint Vincent has had five explosive eruptions in the past, with the most recent being 1979. There was, however, an uptick in seismic activity more recently in December of 2020. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier, Spectrum, FuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios.

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