Submerged volcano Kick ???em Jenny may not be a major threat now, but it might be in approximately 20 years.

This was stated by Deputy Director of the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU), Dr. Lorna Inniss, who said the underwater volcano located eight kilometres north of Grenada, was presently too deep to break the surface if it erupted.

She made this disclosure during a lecture on the topic: Are You Ready for a Disaster like a Hurricane or Tsunami?, to the Christ Church West District Emergency Organisation at the Accra Beach Hotel and Spa last Saturday.

"The volcano has a dome associated with it. When there is an eruption the dome breaks open and you get this pressure and lava that shoots straight up. If it is underwater, to create a tsunami, it has to shoot all the way up to the surface and push the water upwards to get the waves moving," she said.

However, she noted that experts said Kick ???em Jenny was too deep in the water to create a tsunami.

She added that there were also a few submerged volcanoes throughout the Caribbean, with Kick ???em Jenny having a brother called Kick ???em Jack who was younger and smaller, but who still had a presence.

But, despite the presence of such volcanoes, Dr. Inniss stated that one of the more probable sources of a tsunami in the Caribbean was a possible landslide in the Canary Islands. "The experts are saying it will be major if it happens and they are watching it," she said.

She added that it was one thing to think about underwater volcanoes such as Kick ???em Jenny, because it was near, but Barbados could also be affected by an earthquake which occurred thousands of miles away.

julia.rawlins-bentham@barbados.gov.bb

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