A number of long period earthquakes occurred overnight, continuing the trend of previous days. There were two locateable volcano-tectonic earthquakes, one beneath the volcano and one regional event, the latter occurring at 01:30 this morning. Small long-period earthquakes are still being recorded by the Gages seismic station, the amplitude of these events increased for a 3 hour period during the night but has now decreased again to the level seen most of yesterday.
Visual observations at first light this morning revealed that the volcano continues to emit a continuous steam and gas plume which, due to the low windspeed, is rising vertically above the active crater area.
Dr Ellen Howell of the University of Puerto Rico departed the island early today after running the GPS equipment for the last 2 weeks. The GPS surveys will continue to be made until the end of the month, although data will not be available in real time as has been the case for the past several months. Permanent GPS stations are expected to be installed in mid-January.