The destructive force of volcanoes is on show again, with La Soufrière waking after a 40-year slumber to blanket the island of Saint Vincent in smoke and ash.
Located in the Caribbean, Saint Vincent is the largest island of the country ‘Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ island chain. The island of Saint Vincent is dominated by the 1220-metre tall La Soufrière volcano, which is French for “sulphur outlet”.
La Soufrière began rumbling in December 2020, before a full-blown eruption on April 9 and several more since.
More than 100,000 people live in the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines island chain. Around 20,000 people are expected to be displaced for several months by the active volcano. Entire villages have been covered in ash, which has contaminated fresh water as well as destroyed livestock and crops.
Satellite imagery from April 13, four days after the first eruption, shows the extent to which the volcano has devastated the island’s vegetation. The entire northern end of Saint Vincent is completely covered in ash, hiding the vegetation that would otherwise show up as red.
These are ‘false colour’ images, consisting of green, red and near infrared light. Red is an indication of plant health and density, with the growing dark patches revealing the extent of the ash cover.
Smoke and ash has wreaked havoc across the entire region, temporarily closing the Grantley Adams airport which is 178 km away in Barbados.
This Sentinel satellite image from April 8 shows normal cloud cover on the island, the day before the eruption. Heat coming from the volcano surface is clearly visible through the breaks in the cloud in this Geological image.
Only 24 hours later, this Landsat satellite image shows the extent of the smoke and ash pouring from the volcano. The ash plume reached approximately 9,800 metres into the air.
La Soufrière has a long and violent history. It is known to have erupted 23 times in the last 4,000 years, claiming more than 1,000 lives in 1902.
