Dominica experiences a burst of volcanic earthquakes

The Seismic Research Centre  of the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (SRC-UWI) Tuesday said that Dominica has been experiencing a “burst of volcanic earthquakes”.

SRC-UWI in a statement posted on its Facebook page, said that from 12:45 am (local time) on Tuesday “a burst of volcanic earthquakes was recorded beneath northern Dominica.

“Some of these events were sufficiently large to be felt but were smaller than magnitude 3.5 which is below the threshold for posting to the SRC’s social media platforms”

It said so far, 345 earthquakes have been recorded in the sequence and that the rate of  events has decreased.

“The Seismic Research Centre is continuing to monitor the activity and provide ODM-Office of Disaster Management, Dominica  with regular updates,” it added.

Last week, the SRC-UWI said Dominica’s Boiling Lake is “ slowly refilling and the water temperature have ranged between 70° and 80° Celsius”.

The Boiling Lake is a volcano-hydrothermal feature located in an area next to the Valley of Desolation in southern Dominica. It is roughly 60 meters in diameter and approximately 15 meters deep.

The Boiling Lake is the second largest feature of its kind in the world with the largest being Frying Pan Lake in New Zealand.

In a statement, the UWI-SRC said that water levels had changed significantly during the past few days, noting “this is a phenomenon that has occurred several times in the past but was first recorded in 1876”

It said changes in water levels at the lake were last observed in March 2024 and that the  current state of the lake shows a large drop in water levels with steam emission from the main vent area now more clearly visible.

CMC