BY Kathy Barrett
Located approximately five miles north of the Eastern Caribbean Island of Grenada lies the region’s only submarine volcano – Kick ‘em Jenny.
The volcano was unknown before 1939, but shortly after its discovery, it erupted – breaking through the sea surface, triggering a series of tsunamis in the region.
While relatively quiet over the years, the ocean above the volcano has been determined to be a maritime exclusion zone, prohibitive on the shipping route from St. Vincent and the Grenadines to Grenada. It has been deemed to be an exclusion zone because bubbles of volcanic gases could create a sinking hazard to sea-vessels.
In recent days, however, Caribbean disaster officials have been keeping close watch on Kick ‘em Jenny as the volcano has shown “continuous activity” with the Seismic Research Centre (SRC) at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine campus in Trinidad and Tobago on Monday reporting that at least “43 mostly low magnitude volcanic earthquakes” occurring over an 18 hour period.
The activity is also being watched keenly by the National Disaster Management Agency (NaDMA) in Grenada with the agency confirming reports that persons in the St. Patrick’s area of the island have felt tremors, with the largest at magnitude 3.0.
On Sunday, the UWI recorded a high amplitude signal, lasting about 25 seconds, on one of the Grenada stations.
The signal was also recorded on a station in Montserrat.
NaDMA says the alert level for the submarine volcano remains at “yellow” which means “vessels should observe a 0.93 mile exclusion zone.“However, as a precautionary measure, the marine community is advised to continue observing the secondary exclusion zone of 3.1 miles.”
The SRC has constantly warned that Kick ‘em Jenny could be the source of potential danger. If she erupts, the volcano could throw hot rocks above the surface of the sea. These rocks could travel as far as three miles and this would place vessels in the area in great danger.
According to the SRC “Any ship which happened to be near the vent of Kick ‘em Jenny during the 1939 eruption would certainly been destroyed.”
