The level of seismic activity has increased over the last 24 hours, although it has dropped slightly again this afternoon. A variety of signals continue to be recorded by the seismic network, including about 40 significant long-period events and several small hybrid earthquakes. The hybrid earthquakes were mostly too small to be located, and were only well-recorded at the Gages and Chances Peak stations. One larger earthquake was located at shallow depth beneath the crater.
The eastern, southern and northern EDM triangles were all measured today. The results have not been fully processed yet. The Windy Hill to Farrell's line appears to have lengthened by about 2.5 cm in the last 8 days, but this result needs to be confirmed. No other major changes in line length were detected.
Visual observations were made today from the helicopter and the crater rim at Farrell's and the Gages Wall. High amounts of steam emission from the crater have continued, accompanied by occasional ash clouds. Rockfalls occurred mainly from the SW area of the dome, and a few from the north. These seem to be the current areas of dome growth.
Dr Barry Voight arrived in Montserrat yesterday. He will be assessing the stability of the Gages Wall. A team visited the northwestern section of the wall for the first time today, collected samples and made some measurements.