Activity once again at the Soufriere Hills Volcano has been dominated by rockfalls and pyroclastic flows in the Tar River Valley and Castle Peak areas.
The largest of the pyroclastic flows which are a very hot mixture of gas, ash, & rock travelling at high speeds down the mountain, occurred between 1 and 2 pm on Friday and reached about 1000 feet past the Tar River Soufriere.
Ashclouds associated with these flows reached heights of about 6000 feet above sea level.
Helicopter views showed that the upper flanks of the dome are getting very steep and could lead to larger scale collapses of the dome in the future.
In the 24 hour reporting period there were over 100 rockfall signals recorded by the seismic stations.
Early this morning (Sat) there were two swarms of volcano-tectonic earthquakes occurring at shallow depths below the crater.
The alert level remains at ORANGE.
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