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Scientists
keep closer watch on 'Kick 'em Jenny' |
Tuesday, May 15,
2007
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Researchers have installed a
seismometer atop an active volcano called 'Kick 'em Jenny'
under the Caribbean Sea to warn of eruptions or earthquake
activity, scientists said Saturday.
The device allows scientists to collect real-time rumbling
from tremors or as bubbling magma and gases are released
from the volcano, about 820 feet beneath the sea's surface
off Grenada's north-west coast.
"The system essentially acts as a kind of doctor's
stethoscope so we can directly listen to the pulse of the
volcano," said Richard Robertson, director of the Seismic
Research Unit at the University of the West Indies in
Trinidad.
He said the seismometer is connected to a flexible hose that
runs to a buoy, where a high-frequency radio transmitter
sends readings to an observatory in a northern Grenadian
village - all within milliseconds.
A team of scientists led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution in Massachusetts attached the monitoring system
to the volcano by a remote-controlled underwater craft on
May 6.
"By putting a seismometer right on the volcano we will
significantly improve our ability to detect precursory
activity before an eruption takes place," said Woods Hole
scientist Rob Reves-Sohn. |
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Since its
discovery in 1939, when it shot a cloud of ash 900 feet
above the sea surface, 'Kick 'em Jenny' has erupted at least
12 times, most recently in 2001. The volcano, which rises
above the sea floor on the steep inner western slope of the
Lesser Antilles ridge, has not caused any deaths or
injuries.
In 2003, scientists discovered a field of five other active
underwater volcanos off Grenada's north coast. The largest,
nearly one-mile high, was dubbed 'Kick 'em Jack', after its
neighbour.
Kick 'em Jack's crater is 1,640 feet across, while 'Kick 'em
Jenny' is 985 feet, scientists say.
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