Caribbean on alert over underwater volcano activity

San Juan, July 24 (IANS/EFE) The Seismic Research Center of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago issued an alert about elevated activity at Kick 'em-Jenny, an underwater volcano located near Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The volcano erupts approximately every 11 years, centre seismologist Joan Latchman told EFE on Thursday in a telephonic interview, adding that the most recent eruption was in 2001.

Kick'em-Jenny is located some 9 kilometres north-west of Grenada and about the same distance from Ronde island in the Grenadines.

The UWI Center detected a 3.0 magnitude seismic event at the volcano early Thursday.

"If you are by the coast, you have to listen to the emergency advisories," Latchman said, adding that the seismic movement caused by a strong eruption could lead to a tsunami.

Kick 'em-Jenny's largest eruption to date was registered in July 1939, when volcanic ash and gas reached the ocean surface and a series of tsunamis brought waves 2 metres high to the coasts of nearby islands.

--IANS/EFE

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