News Releases

St. Vincent’s La Soufrière volcano featured at London Natural History Museum

For Release Upon Receipt - June 25, 2014

St. Augustine


 ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – Students of Langley Park Government Primary school in Georgetown, St. Vincent recently participated in a live link with scientists and museum visitors at the Natural History Museum in London to talk about their experiences with La Soufrière volcano.

The event was part of UK Universities Week (June 9-13, 2014), during which a 3-metre replica of St. Vincent’s La Soufrière, called “LondonVolcano,” resided on the west lawn of the museum in London. The model volcano was the centre of several exciting and educational volcano-related activities, including a simulated ‘eruption.’

The Langley Park students, who had clear views of La Soufrière from their classroom windows, tuned in to learn how scientists monitor the volcano and also heard recollections from the 1979 and 1902 eruptions. The London-based participants asked the students whether they had ever climbed La Soufrière and to describe conditions at the volcano summit, to which the Vincentian students responded “Cloudy and cold!”

LondonVolcano has spun out of a major collaborative research project called STREVA, which aims to find new ways of helping people who live around volcanoes, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean. Records and reports of the historic eruptions of La Soufrière will be used to explore how volcanologists measure and monitor volcanic activity and to investigate how people can better prepare for, recover from and live with volcanic activity. 

The event is supported by the University of East Anglia, the University of Oxford and The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre. Further information may be found at www.londonvolcano.com.

At the time of writing, St. Vincent’s La Soufrière volcano is quiet and shows no signs of an impending eruption.

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About The UWI Seismic Research Centre

The University of the West Indies (UWI) is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences. 

Established in 1953, the Seismic Research Centre is a Centre within the UWI.  It operates the largest network of seismographs and other geophysical instruments in the Caribbean region.  The SRC monitors earthquakes and volcanoes for most of the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean, manages the Montserrat Volcano Observatory as well as it conducts education and outreach activities in these countries.  The Centre is involved in a regional effort to establish a tsunami warning system for the Caribbean. 

About The UWI

Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged, regional University with over 50,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with four campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Open Campus. The UWI has faculty and students from more than 40 countries and collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation.

Website: www.uwi.edu

 

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