Montserrat Volcano Observatory


Morning Report
Report for the period 16:00 2 December
to 07:00 3 December 1996
The current alert level is ORANGE


Activity at the volcano was unchanged overnight, with the intense swarm of VT earthquakes continuing. There were three rock avalanches from the Galway's Wall. The situation is extremely serious. The Galway's Wall is unstable and collapse may be imminent, leading to a lateral blast.

Access to zones A, B, C and D is not permitted until further notice.

The swarm of volcano-tectonic earthquakes which began on 30 November continued without any reduction in numbers overnight. 130 VT earthquakes were recorded in this reporting period. Processing of these earthquakes is not complete, but it is thought that they are all located at shallow depths beneath the crater. Signals from three Galway's Wall avalanches were recorded by the seismic system, at 6:30 and 7:01 p.m. yesterday and 4:48 a.m. today.

Visibility is very good this morning and MVO staff will continue their inspections of Galway's Wall and the dome.


Montserrat Volcano Observatory