It's another clear day over the Soufriere Hills volcano, and good visual observations of English's Crater should be possible this morning, although low cloud lying to the east may restrict viewing later on. At daybreak, a vertical steam plume was coming from the crater area, carrying a small amount of ash that was being blown southwards by the light breeze. A team left the Observatory at 06:00 to install a GPS receiver on Chance's Peak. This will allow measurement of the Tar River to Chance's Peak line, which was last measured on 21 November. Measurement of this line will provide an important check on the recent EDM measurements, which have suggested that very little deformation is occurring within the volcano.
Three (3) volcano-tectonic earthquakes were located overnight; one in the Gages area, another near St John's and the third in the Long Ground area. These earthquakes were in the depth range 2 - 7 km, and continue the recent trend of volcano-tectonic earthquakes being scattered around the volcano. Six long-period events occurred that were recorded at most seismic stations; the number of these earthquakes has decreased somewhat over the last couple of days. Very small, repetitive long-period events are still being recorded at the Gages seismic station, although between 17:00 and 22:00 last night these stopped completely. Two regional earthquakes were recorded overnight; one at 23:55 had a magnitude of about 2.6 and was located about 70 km north of Montserrat. The second, at 05:45 with a magnitude of 3.1 was located about 160 km from Montserrat.