DESCRIPTION:
West Indies Volcanoes

Volcanoes of the Caribbean and West Indies
-- [Map,15K,InlineGIF]

Of the broad region known as the West Indies, only the Lesser Antilles, an arc of small islands formed by subduction of oceanic crust moving westward from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, are volcanically active. ... The northern islands were discovered by Columbus on his second voyage, in 1493, and other islands on his third in 1498, but they were passed over by settlers preferring the Greater Antilles to the west. It was not until the 1630s and the sugar trade that Europeans started to settle in the islands. On Saba they chose grassy flatlands that were apparently the newly vegetated tops of very recent valley-filling pyroclastic-flow deposits. And on Martinique settlers noticed that Mont Pelée was suspiciously bare of vegetation. The first historical eruption, though, was on Guadeloupe around 1690. Ownership of islands shifted among the French, British, and Dutch, with Carib indians showing fierce resistance to colonization on some islands. Several islands retain formal ties to Europe, whereas others have achieved independence in recent decades. Monitoring of the volcanoes is by the Seismic Research Unit of the University of the West Indies, principally by seismic data telemetered to their base in Trinidad, and by French observatories in Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Location of Kick-'em-Jenny
[Map,11K,InlineGIF]

Kick 'Em Jenny Submarine Volcano
Location: Lesser Antilles, West Indies
Latitude: 12.30 North
Longitude: 61.63 West
Height: -160 meters (-525 feet)
Type: Submarine Volcano

Kick-'em-Jenny, an actively growing submarine volcano 8 kilometers (5 miles) off the north shore of Grenada, rises 1,300 meters (4,300 feet) from the sea floor. Its summit has grown from 235 meters (770 feet) below the sea surface in 1962 to 160 meters (525 feet) twenty years later. Numerous historical eruptions, mostly documented by acoustic signals, have occurred since 1939, when an eruption cloud rose 275 meters (900 feet) above the sea surface. Other known eruptions occurred in 1943, 1953, 1965, 1966, 1972, and 1974. The eruptions of 1939 and 1974 ejected eruption columns above the sea surface.

Kick-'Em-Jenny Menu

Mount Pelée in Martinique, West Indies, and Lassen Peak and Mono domes in California are examples of lava domes. An extremely destructive eruption accompanied the growth of a dome at Mount Pelée in 1902. The coastal town of St. Pierre, about 4 miles downslope to the south, was demolished and nearly 30,000 inhabitants were killed by an incandescent, high-velocity ash flow and associated hot gases and volcanic dust. Only two men survived; one because he was in a poorly ventilated, dungeon-like jail cell and the other who somehow made his way safely through the burning city.

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Soufriere Guadeloupe Volcano
Location: Guadelopue, West Indies
Latitude: 16.05 N
Longitude: 61.67 W
Height: 1,467 meters
Type: Stratovolcano

La Soufrière de la Guadeloupe volcano occupies the southern end of Basse-Terre, the western half of the butterfly-shaped island of Guadeloupe. Construction of the Grand Découverte volcano about 0.2 million years ago (Ma) was followed by caldera formation after a plinian eruption about 0.1 Ma, and then by construction of the Carmichael volcano within the caldera. Two episodes of edifice collapse and associated large debris avalanches formed the Carmichael and Amic craters about 11,500 and 3,100 years ago, respectively. The presently active la Soufriere volcano subsequently grew within the Amic crater. The summit consists of a flat-topped lava dome, and several other domes occur on the southern flanks. Most historical eruptions have originated from NW-SE-trending fissure systems that cut across the summit and upper flanks. A relatively minor phreatic eruption in 1976-77 caused severe economic disruption when the island's capital city, which lies immediately below the volcano, was evacuated.

[Map,16K,InlineGIF]
Map, Soufriere Hills Volcano and Montserrat Island, West Indies, 1997

[Image,220K,GIF]
Image, Soufriere Hills Volcano
-- USGS Photo by J.W. Ewert, 1996

Soufriere Hills Volcano
Location: Montserrat Island
Latitude: 16.72 N
Longitude: 62.18 W
Height: 915 meters (3,010 feet)
Type: Stratovolcano
Latest Eruptions: Current eruption began July 18, 1995, and continues -- (written August, 1997)

Soufriere Hills volcano sits on the north flank of the older South Soufriere Hills volcano, located at the south end of Montserrat Island (13 x 8 kilometers). The summit area consists primarily of a series of ESE-trending lava domes. Block-and-ash flow and surge units associated with dome growth predominate in flank deposits. Pyroclastic-flow deposits associated with the formation of English's Crater have been dated at around 19,000 years BP (before present). A series of eruptions dated at 16,000-24,000 years BP pre-dates the Castle Peak dome in the crater by an unknown period of time. English's Crater is breached to the east. Periods of increased seismicity below Soufriere Hills were reported in 1897-98, 1933-37, and again in 1966-67. There were no reported historical eruptions, but some deposits and features have a young appearance. A radiocarbon date of ~320 ± 54 years BP from a northeast-flank pyroclastic-flow deposit is significantly younger than other radiocarbon dates from the volcano, and could have resulted from the latest activity of Castle Peak.

Soufriere Hills (Montserrat) Menu

Soufriere St. Vincent Volcano
Location: St. Vincent, West Indies
Latitude: 13.33 N
Longitude: 61.18 W
Height: 1,178 meters
Type: Stratovolcano

Soufriere St. Vincent is the northernmost and youngest volcano on St. Vincent Island. The 1.6-kilometer-wide summit crater, whose northeast rim is cut by a crater formed in 1812, lies on the southwest margin of the 2.2-kilometer-wide Somma crater, which is breached widely to the southwest as a result of slope failure. It has a history of violent eruptions, including those in 1718, 1812, and 1902, when 1,600 people were killed only hours before the disastrous Pelée eruption 165 kilometers to the north. A lava dome was emplaced in the summit crater in 1971, forming an island in a lake that filled the crater prior to an eruption in 1979. The lake was then largely ejected and the dome was replaced with another.

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