The level of seismic activity at the Soufriere Hills volcano during the night has remained almost the same as during the day time. It is still dominated by the occurrence of small, repetitive hybrid earthquakes and rockfalls. A few signals interpreted as representing possible small explosions were also recorded. The most notable event, however, was a sequence of rockfalls and small explosions which started at 03:29 this morning and continued for about 15 minutes. The ash cloud generated by this series of events was seen drifting towards the northwest. After this sequence, the number of hybrid events increased to about 1 per minute from about 1 every two to three minutes before. However, the size of the events seems to have decreased.
Visibility during the very early morning from both the Observatory and Bramble Airport was generally poor because of low cloud cover. However, brief glimpses from the airport indicated continuous vigorous steam emission from the central part of the dome and a few rockfalls in the northwestern sector.
In spite of the slightly reduced level of activity at the Soufriere Hills volcano during the past several days, scientists at the MVO still view the situation with grave concern. The MVO continues to urge that visits to the evacuated zone be kept to a minimum. The Tar River, Long Ground and Whites areas are extremely dangerous, and should not be entered under any circumstances.