Monday, October 24, 2005
Experts keep a watchful eye on volcano
Volcano experts in Papua New Guinea's West New Britain province are keeping a careful watch on Mount Garbuna after its sudden eruption early this week.The volcano had been dormant for almost two-thousand years before it began spewing ash, lava and steam and affecting the nearby Garu village last weekend.
Drinking wells in the area have been contaminated by the ash and locals say dead fish and eels have surfaced in the nearby streams.A member of the provincial disaster committee Steve Saunders says monitoring equipment has now been installed at the site. Although there are earthquake related events being recorded by the seizmonitors they are quite small and far between, he says.
So at the moment obviously there is a cause for concern and constant vigilance we've now got to keep an eye on it, but its current state of eruptive activity is very small and minor and doesn't really pose a threat at the moment, he says.
Drinking wells in the area have been contaminated by the ash and locals say dead fish and eels have surfaced in the nearby streams.A member of the provincial disaster committee Steve Saunders says monitoring equipment has now been installed at the site. Although there are earthquake related events being recorded by the seizmonitors they are quite small and far between, he says.
So at the moment obviously there is a cause for concern and constant vigilance we've now got to keep an eye on it, but its current state of eruptive activity is very small and minor and doesn't really pose a threat at the moment, he says.
# posted by kevin : 9:10 AM
