The UWI St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago. Wednesday, May 10, 2023- The UWI-SRC visited the island of Nevis on April 25-27 2023, to conduct outreach sessions with several primary and secondary schools. This comes after a four-month, geo-hazard awareness campaign conducted by the Nevis Disaster Management Department (NDMD). To end their segment on geo-hazards they invited the UWI-SRC to participate in a number of school outreach activities that aimed to summarize the hazards students learnt between January to April 2023. These activities aimed to increase the awareness of these hazards and teach the best safety and preparedness practices in order to increase the resilience of the students and support the efforts of building a safety culture within the younger population.

 

The UWI-SRC visited Charlestown, St James, St Thomas and Joycelyn Liburd Primary schools as well as Charlestown and Gingerland Secondary Schools. The students were given information on earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes and how best to prepare for these disasters. 

Education and outreach activities are conducted throughout the islands that are monitored with the aim of raising awareness of these hazards.     

The UWI St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago. Friday, March 10, 2023 – Two members of The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre Education and Outreach (E&O) team are in Dominica from February 27^th – March 10^th to meet with disaster management stakeholders, conduct fieldwork and facilitate workshops as the UWI-SRC endeavours to build an evidence base for future volcano risk communication on the island.

This visit forms a part of the “Building resilience of at-risk communities to volcanic eruptions through evidence-based communications in Dominica.” project. As a seed project this project seeks to pave the way for future work that will develop a tailor-made risk communication strategy and communication products for Dominica. While on island, the E&O team will host a breakfast meeting with local disaster risk management stakeholders, conduct interviews with key functionaries and administer a survey on Dominica’s geohazard risk information needs and preferences.

During their visit the UWI-SRC’s E&O team will also host focus groups in selected communities as well as a creative workshop with local partners. The creative workshop will serve as the first step in co-producing an educational animated short film on Dominica’s volcanoes. It is intended that the information gathered other these two weeks would inform communication approaches uniquely suited to the Dominican context. The UWI-SRC recognises the critical role of communication in effective crisis response and through this project is seeking lay the groundwork for efficient volcano crisis communication in Dominica and the other the territories it serves.

The project is a joint undertaking between the University of Cambridge and The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre and is lead by Dr. Lara Mani and Ms Stacey Edwards. The Dominican public invited to participate in the project by completing the information needs survey found here: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3k2LmomtX260fQ2?fbclid=IwAR1Y18x5TjRA4gi6xFvFRQr6xphUr9NEw93M26Cyq_pRy_X4eXvfqkcplXQ

The UWI St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago. Wednesday, February 22, 2023. — A two-member team will be in Grenada this week assessing the current suite of animations in their digital library and seeking information from the public on their knowledge of Kick em Jenny (KeJ) for the production of a new animation based on the submarine volcano.

The team will be conducting feedback sessions with identified stakeholders and focus groups in two communities in partnership with the National Disaster Management Agency (NaDMA) in Grenada and Carriacou. The team is encouraging persons to complete the survey and share as they seek to create products for the region to increase awareness and a better understanding of the geohazards the Centre monitors.

The surveys can be found here: https://bit.ly/3xBLaWU and https://bit.ly/3KqWkFz

The UWI-SRC advises that there is no increase in activity at Kick em Jenny at this time. This fieldwork is for education purposes to inform the Centre’s digital content and production. The UWI-SRC and NaDMA remains the official sources of information for any information on Kick em Jenny and other geohazards that can impact the region.

Kick em Jenny Fact Sheet

• Kick-’em-Jenny, located approximately 8 km north of Grenada, is the only known ‘live’ submarine volcano in the Eastern Caribbean.
• It is the most frequently active volcano in the Eastern Caribbean, erupting atl east 14 times since 1939.
• It stands roughly 1300 m high and 300 m wide at its summit (highest point of the volcano), which is currently thought to be about 197 m below the surface of the sea.
• Kick-‘em-Jenny first revealed its presence in the historic period in 1939. The most recent eruption of Kick-’em-Jenny occurred in April 2017 with an instrumentally recorded unrest period in 2018.
• Since the current depth to the Kick-’em-Jenny vent (268 m) is considerably lower than the depth at which very explosive eruptions can be expected at this volcano (130 m), it is unlikely that an eruption will trigger a tsunami.
• Of much more immediate concern at present is the danger posed to shipping due to direct hazards associated with the volcano.
• The alert level remains at Yellow for KeJ which means a 1.5 km exclusion zone is in effect around the volcano for all marine vessels.

The UWI Seismic Research Centre, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago W.I. December 13, 2022-Regional earthquake and volcano monitoring was recently invigourated with the construction of a new monitoring station in the Northern Range of Trinidad. Previously a station was located at the Seismic Centre at the Corner of Gordon Street and Bates Trace, St. Augustine, however as anthropogenic (human-related) activity increased, the need for a quieter location became a priority. The newest addition to the seismic network is furnished with instruments to measure both weak and strong ground motion, which gives it the capability to detect and record with high quality, a wide range of ground motion.  The site will also serve as a communication hub, bolstering high-speed data communication for other local stations.  

Commissioning of this new monitoring station adds important redundancy to the Centre’s data communications network, which employs predominantly the Internet in the local segment. The location enables line-of-sight radio communication (the ability to connect to other stations without interference) with several existing and candidate station sites in Trinidad. Its predecessor, the seismic station on Gordon Street has the distinction of being one of the oldest seismographs in the region. In 1964 it was chosen to function as one of the World Wide Standard Seismograph Network of stations and was upgraded with trial-axial long period and short period sensors. Over the years, it developed the reputation of being a quiet site that is ideally located to record seismic waves from interesting sources such as the Mid-Atlantic ridge.  

 

Outfitted with a broadband seismometer, an accelerometer and a continuously operating GPS reference station to track plate displacement, the new station is estimated to cost over $60,000 USD when operational.  This is akin to the level of expenditure used to establish several individual components of the Regional Tsunami Surveillance Network between 2005-2014. This latest investment in the Centre’s monitoring infrastructure, is testament to our enduring commitment to providing stakeholders with high quality scientific information and analysis. As the UWI-SRC continues to partner with regional governments to understand earthquake and volcano hazard in the region, we remain dedicated in our efforts to achieve the targets outlined in the United Nations’ Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.  

Our instrumentation Engineer, oversaw construction of the station and considers it an important addition to the Centre’s assets. He believes the new station will “restore the prestige once bestowed on its predecessor”. Seismologist Dr. Rodrigo Contreras Arratia says the new station gives researchers additional tools to help them understand seismicity in the region.  

The UWI Seismic Research Centre is the scientific agency responsible for monitoring earthquakes and volcanoes in the Eastern Caribbean and provides stakeholders with information on these hazards.