Government Information Service

The Volcanic Explanation
For The 24 Hour Period Ending 7 AM On Wednesday January 08, 1997
A Presentation Of The Government Information Services
In Conjunction With The MVO.


The October 1st dome (dome # 2) has continued to grow over the last 24 hours. This has resulted in further rockfalls and pyroclastic flows causing ash columns which have been blown westwards by the prevailing winds.

Yesterday (Tuesday) there was an increase in the number of pyroclastic flows and a major collapse of the dome could take place over the next few days.

Last night there was good visibility and the glowing dome could be seen from various parts of the island. It seems as if the northwest flank of the Oct 1 st dome is becoming more active.

The seismic activity is dominated by rockfall signals and there have been over 150 events in the last 24 hours, in addition there was one hybrid, two volcano - tectonic and two long period earthquakes.

Some GPS measurements were taken on Tuesday and some correlation spectrometer measurement was taken on the western side of the volcano to see how much sulphur dioxide gas is coming from the volcano.

It is now estimated that in the last two weeks, 4.6 million cubic metres of material has been extruded at the October 1st dome, this is approx 4.4 cubic metres per second.

The alert remains at ORANGE and yesterday (Tuesday) residents of Foxes Bay were allowed to return home for the time being. However they are being urged to watch the alert stages carefully by listening in to ZJB Radio.

Government Information Service