4th August 2021 Update: Montserrat Volcano Observatory staff movements in St Vincent
Staff at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) are continuing to work closely with their colleagues at the Seismic Research Centre (SRC), following volcanic activity at La Soufrière in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. To date, six MVO staff members have been deployed to St Vincent and other scientists and technical experts are expected to go in the coming months.
MVO support has included personnel who have travelled to St. Vincent to lend assistance on the ground. Their roles have included assisting with extending the monitoring capability, taking specialist measurements, training of staff and volunteers in data acquisition and processing and the use of specialist equipment. At various stages members of MVO staff have acted as team leader, which includes advising the authorities and taking part in outreach.
Dr. Victoria Miller arrived on August 2nd and is expected to remain there until August 30th. Dr. Miller will be surveying damage to buildings, critical infrastructure and agriculture due to different hazards produced by La Soufriere volcano in order to assess impacts to these at-risk elements. This work would feed into future risk assessments and mitigation activities. In addition, she will be providing support to the Government of SVG for the ongoing lahar hazard affecting localities around the volcano. She will be undertaking hazard assessments including the use of lahar modelling to help identify future impact zones.
Dr. Karen Pascal returned from St Vincent on July 23rd having arrived on June 21st . Dr. Pascal was working on La Soufrière deformation monitoring with Dr. Michal Camejo with a view to giving basic training in GPS processing and data analysis to the Belmont Observatory’s local staff. She also assisted Ms. Leanka Henry from NEMO Soufrière Monitoring Unit, with collecting S02 flux measurements.
MVO’s Senior Instrumentation Engineer, Carlisle Williams, returned in July, having arrived on May 21st, where he was assisting with the installation and maintenance of the La Soufrière monitoring system.
Dr. Stinton returned to St Vincent on June 21st to do aerial photogrammetry work over the summit crater to map the topographic and morphological changes caused by the explosive phase of the eruption. He arrived back in Montserrat on June 24th. Previously, Dr Stinton had been in St Vincent from January 13th until January 20th and May 7th – June 4th. During these visits, he carried out thermal and visual observations of the lava dome, collected samples of the lava dome with Prof. Richie Robertson from SRC, worked on the pyroclastic flow and lahar deposits in valleys on the western coast and also carried out aerial photogrammetry surveys from which the first high quality estimates of the dome volume and growth rate were determined.
Dr. Thomas Christopher arrived back in Montserrat on May 14th having been in St Vincent since January 13th. Dr. Christopher used his expertise in the area of geochemistry (volcanic gases) and petrology to assist with the characterisation of the eruption. He also acted as team lead during part of his stay.
MVO seismologist, Rod Stewart, arrived back in Montserrat on May 7th having been at St Vincent since February 22nd. Mr. Stewart has extensive experience as a volcano seismologist. In St Vincent he has been instrumental in setting up the seismic data acquisition and processing systems at the Belmont Observatory, as well as processing and interpreting the incoming seismic signals. He also took the role of team lead during part of his visit.
Alongside the MVO team stationed in St Vincent, Staff at MVO in Montserrat have also been providing expertise and support to their colleagues in St. Vincent. MVO based staff have been assisting with data processing, risk assessment and data interpretation. MVO Director. Dr. Graham Ryan, and the technical teams including Mr. Marlon Fergus, have all played key roles. The MVO administrative team, Ms. Veda Dubery and Mrs. Gunjan Jeswani have also provided extensive support. All of the team who have been, or are based in St. Vincent, have also worked remotely from Montserrat on data processing and other tasks.
