Activity at the volcano has dropped back down to a lower level over the last 24 hours, with a few small earthquake swarms occurring throughout the day.
There were no good views today of the dome due to cloud cover, but brief glimpses of the area at the top of the White River valley suggested that there has been a large scoop of material excavated from the dome and possibly Galways wall itself. A hummocky deposit has been observed down the White River all the way to the sea, and it is thought that the sudden avalanche of this material from the Galways wall area triggered the extensive pyroclastic flows and surges of yesterday morning. Reports of large waves coming ashore at Old Road Bay were investigated today, and observations of deposits near the Old Road jetty this morning suggested that a 1 m high wave had moved boats onshore, and carried debris 80 m along the road towards Old Towne. No other similar deposits were seen at other beaches along the western or eastern coastlines.
Between 16:00 yesterday and 16:00 today, a total of 200 hybrid earthquakes, 3 long period earthquakes and 7 rockfall signals were recorded by the broadband system. Most of the hybrid earthquakes occurred in several small swarms at intervals of between 4 and 6 hours.
Air quality at all monitoring stations across the island is good today.
People should remain alert and listen to Radio Montserrat for further information as it is possible that such high level activity could recur.
Mr. Billy Darroux returned to the observatory today after a short holiday in Dominica.