The Soufriere Hills Volcano Observatory continue to routinely process data from ten seismic stations, two electronic tilt stations, four EDM sites and two dry tilt stations, located around the volcano. Water and gas samples are also collected regularly at the Tar River Soufriere. Ash samples from recent explosions from English Crater are also collected routinely and sent to laboratories overseas for analysis.
During the period under review there were 30 located events most of which were scattered beneath the Soufriere Hills volcano. These earthquakes were generally of a shallow depth (2-6km) and were mainly volcano-tectonic events. Some of the events represent part of a burst of seismicity lasting for about forty minutes which occurred from around 15:30.
Electronic tiltmeter observations revealed no genuine deformation events. An attempt was made to re-occupy the Amersham dry tilt site, however poor weather conditions (high winds & rainfall) prevented this from being done.
Mr Lloyd Lynch of the Seismic Research Unit returned to Trinidad today. Mr Lynch arrived in Montserrat last week Wednesday to assist in the repair of seismic stations and in the relocation of the Observatory to its new site at Old Town.
The scientific team was augmented yesterday with the arrival of Dr Willy Aspinall and Dr John Tomblin. Dr Aspinall had been a member of the scientific team during an earlier period in the present crisis.
Today Dr Alan Smith, Dr Glen Matiolli, Dr Hans Schellekens and Dr Jacqueline Dixon arrived today to participate in the monitoring activities.