Ten (10) events have been located so far during the period under review. These were mostly long-period earthquakes located at depths of 0 to 2 km beneath the Soufriere Hills volcano. Seismicity has been dominated by very small, repetitive, long-period events interspersed with occasional larger earthquakes. The very small repetitive events have been occurring with a frequency of about two per minute and showed a slight increase in amplitude from 21:00 on the 23 January to 10:00 on the 24 January. There were ash emissions reported at 07:55, 11:08 and 14:08 on the 24 January. The largest emission occurred at 15:39 on the 24 January and was witnessed by scientists on the crater rim. All these events were recorded by the seismograph stations at Gages and Long Ground.
EDM measurements were carried out on the Whites - Castle Peak - Long Ground triangle. The results obtained are within the error of the instrument.
Visual observations were made from the ground last evening, from the helicopter this morning and from a newly established observation position at the crater rim above Farrell's this afternoon. Strong glowing of the active northern part of the new dome was seen from the airport and from the road to Harris last night. The helicopter flight this morning showed continued rock avalanching from both the northern and southern parts of the new dome, although no individual spines were noted; instead, both areas appear to be slowly inflating and growing vertically. The new observation position above Farrell's directly overlooks the active area in the north of the crater, and good observations of rock falls and very small explosions were made. This observation position will be utilised in good weather to obtain better estimates of dome growth rate.