Hazard Management Cayman Islands (HCMI) is currently monitoring the elevated alert of the possible eruption of the Kick’em Jenny volcano issued by the UWI Seismic Research Centre Trinidad.

This elevated alert of Orange means – Highly elevated level of seismic and/or fumarolic activity or other unusual activity. Eruption may begin with less than twenty-four hours notice.

The threat of hazards such as tsunami, ballistic projectiles and lowered water density that may accompany the eruption of the volcano is confined to the Eastern Caribbean. An exclusion zone has been established according to the Alert Level. This exclusion zone is 5km from the summit.

The Volcano DOES NOT pose a threat to the Cayman Islands

HMCI will continue to monitor the alerts issued by UWI Seismic Research Centre Trinidad.

For more information visit

http://www.uwiseismic.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=365
and
http://www.uwiseismic.com/General.aspx?id=53

Related:

**Undersea Caribbean volcano raised to second-highest alert level

From Caribbean Journal

A Caribbean volcano alert has come to the coast of Grenada.

The alert level has been raised to “orange” on the “Kick ‘em Jenny” submarine volcano in Grenada, following an increase in seismic activity, according to the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre.

The volcano is located about 5 miles north of Grenada.

“For the period since the 11th July a total of more than 200 micro and small earthquakes, of varying magnitudes, have been recorded, with the largest, prior to the strong signal, less than magnitude 3.0,” the UWISRC said.

On Thursday morning, a strong continuous signal was observed on instruments monitoring the volcano, the UWISRC said.

Orange is the second-highest warning level, meaning “Highly elevated level of seismic and/or fumarolic activity or other unusual activity.”

Divers have also reported degassing occurring off the west coast of Grenada in the Moliniere Sculpture Park area.

The UWI-SRC said the activity was being closely monitored.

The orange level is one below red, or full eruption; orange means eruption can begin with less than 24 hours notice.

The threat level rise means all regional governments have been alerted through disaster coordinators.

It also means that vulnerable communities are being advised of evacuation routes and transport has been put on standby.

All shipping is already being held outside the first exclusion zone, or about 1.5 kilometres from the summit. Non-essential shipping (including pleasure craft) are urged to stay about 5 kilometres clear of the summit.

The “Kick ‘em Jenny” undersea volcano has seen more than 200 micro and small earthquakes in the past 12 days,

The volcano has erupted a dozen times since 1939, when a major eruption generated a series of small tsunamis.

It is the most active volcano in the Antilles Volcanic Arc, according to the NOAA.

IMAGE: volcano Seismic activity leads to second-highest alert level

For more on this story go to: http://caribjournal.com/2015/07/23/undersea-caribbean-volcano-raised-to-second-highest-alert-level/#

**UPDATE: Grenada reports decreased activity at underwater volcano

By Linda Straker AP From Yahoo News

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada (AP) — An underwater volcano north of Grenada is showing a decline in seismic activity, authorities on the eastern Caribbean island said Saturday.

Grenada’s National Disaster Management Agency said it expects to lower the alert level from orange to yellow if that pattern continues.

Seismic activity recently increased at the Kick ’em Jenny volcano, with authorities warning on Thursday that an eruption could occur within 24 hours. But the Seismic Research Center at the University of the West Indies said there had been fewer than 20 earthquakes associated with the volcano between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

“This represents a significant decline in the level of earthquakes associated with the activity so far,” the center said, adding that it would continue to monitor activity.

The volcano’s recent heightened activity prompted authorities in the Caribbean region to issue alerts, but officials at the center said there was no risk of a destructive tsunami.

“There is no need for panic,” the center said. “People should go about their daily lives as normal.”

Terrence Walters, acting coordinator for Grenada’s disaster management agency, said officials were upgrading equipment to better monitor the volcano and provide more precise data.

The volcano has erupted beneath the Caribbean Sea at least 12 times without causing any deaths or injuries. The last eruption occurred in 2001.

Kick ’em Jenny was discovered in the 1930s and rises 1,300 meters (4,265 feet) above the seafloor on a steep slope of the Lesser Antilles ridge.

For more on this story go to: http://news.yahoo.com/grenada-reports-decreased-activity-underwater-volcano-182202175.html

Alert: Caribbean Sea volcano may spawn tsunami

From TWILAND

Seamount Kick ‘em Jenny has become active since the magnitude 6.4 earthquake near Barbados last week. The alert level has been raised from yellow to orange. Ships in the area are being warned that buoyancy of the water has increased, which may imperil safe operation. Many ships go missing in this part of the Caribbean Sea, which is known as The Bermuda Triangle. An exercise conducted by the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program in 2010 listed the tsunami hazards in the northern Atlantic Ocean. One of those areas is the Caribbean Sea near Puerto Rico:

“Statistics from the NGDC tsunami database show that the U.S. Virgin Islands were struck by a tsunami up to 8m high in 1867, which killed 30 people. Over 140 people were killed in western Puerto Rico by a 6m tsunami in 1918. The Caribbean is a region of complex plate tectonic boundaries that provide the mechanism for earthquakes to trigger large tsunamis.”

Therefore, be alert and prepared for a tsunami along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast of the United States. A tsunami can be generated by a dropping of a tectonic plate or an undersea landslide. The large eruption of the Colima Volcano in Mexico and the large earthquake near Barbados last week indicate magma movement.

Be aware or be in Despair!

Background

This tsunami exercise is being conducted to assist tsunami preparedness efforts along the U.S. and Canadian east coasts, the Gulf of Mexico coast, and in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Historical tsunami records from sources such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) show that approximately 85% of the world’s oceanic tsunamis occur in the Pacific Basin. While the historic occurrence of destructive tsunamis along the US and Canadian Atlantic coasts suggests these events are rare, there are a few areas in the Atlantic basin where earthquakes occur that have the potential to develop destructive tsunamis that may impact the US/Canadian coast. These areas include the coasts of Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, the region east of the Azores Islands, and portions of the continental slope off the US and Canadian coast due to sub-sea landslides.

Lessons learned from the destructive Indian Ocean tsunami include that even areas rarely impacted by tsunamis can suffer tremendous damage and casualties if the people that live and/or travel in these areas are not prepared.

Statistics from the NGDC tsunami database show that the U.S. Virgin Islands were struck by a tsunami up to 8m high in 1867, which killed 30 people. Over 140 people were killed in western Puerto Rico by a 6m tsunami in 1918. The Caribbean is a region of complex plate tectonic boundaries that provide the mechanism for earthquakes to trigger large tsunamis.

Another area in the Atlantic Ocean capable of producing large earthquakes is the region between Portugal and the Azores Islands. In 1755 an earthquake located in this region estimated at over magnitude 8, generated a tsunami up to 30m in Portugal. The tsunami was recorded widely around the Atlantic producing damage at several locations including Canada and the Caribbean.

Closer to the Canadian Atlantic shore, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in 1929 triggered a large, sub-sea landslide which triggered a tsunami. This tsunami reached 7m amplitude in Newfoundland and killed 22 people. Recent studies of the continental slope along the U.S. east coast show that this type of tsunami has likely occurred several times within the past 10,000 years.

NOAA operates a tsunami warning system for U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, eastern Canada, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands through its West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WCATWC) in Palmer, Alaska. This Center provides tsunami warning, watch, advisory, and information messages to these coasts approximately five minutes after an earthquake’s occurrence. Primary recipients of WCATWC Atlantic messages include National Weather Service (NWS) coastal Weather Forecast Offices (WFO), state/territory warning points/emergency operation centers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Canadian Atlantic Storm Prediction Center, and the U.S. military. These agencies transmit the message to people potentially impacted by a tsunami. NOAA’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Ewa Beach, Hawaii provides a similar service internationally in the Caribbean Sea. LANTEX 10 Handbook 2

The Puerto Rico Seismic Network (PRSN) of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez also provides earthquake and tsunami information and warning service to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in coordination with the WCATWC.

NOAA and the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP) are providing the framework for this exercise as a means for emergency responders along the Atlantic coast and in PR/VI to test and update tsunami response plans. High levels of vulnerability along the Atlantic coast as well as the Indian Ocean analogy should provide a strong incentive for local jurisdictions to prepare for a tsunami.

Panic in Grenada over eruption fears

Morphology of the Kick ’em Jenny volcano as revealed by a multibeam survey by the NOAA Ship Ron Brown in March 2002. The survey shows the modern cone of the volcano is nested within a larger horseshoe-shaped depression below, formed by slope failure. —Photo courtesy NOAA

Threat of tsunami unlikely

Lynch said the threat of a tsunami was unlikely, based on the phy­sical configuration of the volcano.

“Volcanic systems don’t erupt perpetually. Eventually, they go back to sleep. What we expect over the next couple of days, you could have a number of eruptive episodes. They can be larger or smaller, but based on the physical configuration of the volcano, we know the likelihood of this system generating very large explosions or sector collapse, which may result in tsunamis to nearby or coastal regions further afield, that possibility is remote.

“I am not saying it is impossible; in nature, nothing is impossible, but in managing these systems, you always have to balance the pros and the cons,” he said.

“We will continue to liaise with the government and they will continue to use that information as to the risk that this system poses to the residents of Grenada. We are of the view that the system, in its pre­sent configuration, poses large-scale danger to coastal communities. Our findings have shown that the major risk is to the marine community, those boats that ply between Grenada and the Grenadines.

Because of the increased level of activity, there is now likely that in an eruption episode, the system may have the capability to throw ballistics within an area of 1.5 to three kilometers. So for that reason, that area should be avoided,” Lynch said.

In Barbados, Dr Lorna Inniss, acting director of Coastal Zone Management, in a news conference, alerted Bajans of the orange alert on Kick ’em Jenny but advised they were not under a tsunami alert. Grenada is 261 kilometers south-west of Barbados.

Inniss said: “The orange alert is mentioned purely because of the increased seismic activity and the possibility of an eruption. Just remember that we are dealing with probabilities, and so when we say there is a possibility of an eruption in 24 hours, it does not mean that Kick ’em Jenny will erupt.

“Over the next few hours, days or weeks as this orange alert remains, we want to be as vigilant as possible because during that entire period, until the seismic activity returns to normal level, there is the possibility of an eruption.”

There was fear and panic in Grenada and nearby islands yesterday after the Seismic Research Centre (SRC) at The University of the West Indies (The UWI) raised the alert level, in response to heightened activity in the Kick ’em Jenny undersea volcano, off Grenada’s north coast.

However, after meeting with UWI officials who flew to Grenada from Trinidad, the government informed citizens there was no need for alarm and the activity was being observed by researchers.

All nearby countries were advised there was no threat to coastal communities.

Word of the Code Orange alert for the volcano spread through social media, prompting advisories in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and St Lucia from disaster management officials. In Trinidad and Grenada, St Vincent, St Lucia, and Barbados, rumors spread a tsunami warning was being issued.

The Kick ’em Jenny volcano is located nine kilometers off the north coast of Grenada.

Lloyd Lynch, research fellow at the Seismic Research Centre, addressed a news conference in Grenada yesterday afternoon.

He said within the last three days, the level of activity at the volcano had “ramped up”.

Grenada’s National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) had met with Lynch in an emergency meeting and later issued a statement.

In the statement, Grenada’s Government Information Services Ltd (GISL) said officials had been advised the elevated activity being observed at the volcano represented no significant coastal threat to the coastal region of nearby countries and as consequence, there was no need to move people away from the coastlines.

Lynch said more minor eruptions could be expected before the system goes back to sleep, and the undersea volcano remains far below the surface, which would cancel out chances of a major tsunami.

Calming people’s fears

However, as a result of the orange alert, all sea-going vessels have been warned of a five-kilometer exclusion zone. Gases being discharged by the volcano have been observed by fishermen and divers, and seafarers are advised the buoyancy of their vessels can be affected should they venture into the area.

At the news conference, a state official said there had been “anxiety, fear and even panic” because of news of a pending eruption and of a tsunami, and that as a responsible government, officials had decided to speak to the nation “to calm your fears”.

Grenadians were told “nothing serious is about to happen” and they should go about their business as usual. He said however while the system is not erupting, it also can pose a risk to sea-going vessels.

Earthquake activity

Lynch said: “We had a large earthquake in Barbados on July 16, and following the earthquake, the activity at Kick ’em Jenny ramped up. Over the last three days, the activity ramped up to the extent that we recorded over 150 micro-earthquakes within a period of about 12 to 14 hours.

At about 5.15 a.m., we had what seemed to have been a minor eruption at the system. We have not confirmed as yet that it was an eruption. In the absence of some kind of visual or surveillance, it’s difficult to say whether it was an eruption. But the number of earthquakes increased to the level where they were happening one behind the other, resulting in some form of tremor activity.

“Our seismic stations at Maribou, as well as Caricou, recorded the events quite distinctively. But we still have not confirmed it was not an actual eruption.”

He added since the episode, which lasted for about an hour on Thursday, the level of activity had “ramped back down”.

©2015 Caribbean Communication Network

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20150723/news/panic-in-grenada-over-eruption-fears

IMAGES:
USGS
NOAA
trinidadexpress.com

For more on this story go to: http://twiland.info/alert-tsunami-kick-em-jenny/