Ah, the scents of a Caribbean vacation - sweet coconut suntan oil, tangy saltwater ... and a putrid smell like rotten eggs. Belching clouds of steam, puddles of boiling mud and, yes, the heavy smell of sulphur are as much a part of the islands' scenery as the beaches and palm trees that attract armies of pleasure-seeking holiday-makers each year.
The exotic Lesser Antilles - St. Lucia, Martinique, Grenada, St. Vincent and the other mountainous outposts on the southeastern edge of the Caribbean Sea - are volcanic islands, formed millions of years ago as the North American tectonic plate slid underneath the Caribbean tectonic plate. That sliding is still going on, explaining the region's frequent earthquakes, sputtering steam vents and sulphur springs - and the many places called "soufriere," or source of sulphur - that attract tourists today but remind scientists, at least, of the potential for catastrophe tomorrow.
"There are between 15 and 30 potentially active (volcanoes) in the Lesser Antilles," said Alan Smith, a volcanologist and director of the department of geology at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez. The best known Caribbean volcano lately has been the rumbling giant in Montserrat's Soufriere Hills, which roared to life three years ago this summer (on July 18, 1995) after nearly four centuries of virtual dormancy.
Since then, massive "pyroclastic" flows of superheated rock, ash and gases have destroyed Plymouth, Montserrat's capital, and killed 20 people. The island's airport has been destroyed and its southern two-thirds evacuated as an "unsafe zone" at risk from the volcano. But Montserrat's is not the only Caribbean volcano that has woken up with a vengeance. The deadliest volcanic eruption anywhere this century was on the French island of Martinique in 1902, when Mount Pelee - named for a volcano goddess - sent a rush of ultrafast incandescent ash, gas and dust through nearby St. Pierre, completely destroying the city and leaving 30,000 people dead. Only two men survived, one because he was in a poorly ventilated, dungeon-like jail cell, the other by forcing his badly burned body to run nearly four miles to avoid fires that broke out as the material rushed by.
La Soufriere
St. Vincent's volcano, called La Soufriere, erupted and killed 2,000 within days of Mount Pelee's blast. It also erupted twice, with less tragic consequences, in the 1970s. Volcanic eruptions in the Caribbean are not the slow-moving lava rivers familiar from nature films about volcanoes in the Pacific. Because the magma boiling beneath the islands is high in silica, eruptions are characterized by ultrafast, explosive "pyroclastic" flows, which can appear less spectacular than red-hot lava but are much deadlier, scientists say. "They are mobile, they are fast and they're really hot. ... They flow more easily than water, they flow like a cloud flows down a valley, it's like wind," volcanologist Rick Wunderman at the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Network in Washington said. For example, he said, "The deposit at St. Pierre (in Martinique) is knee-deep, but it knocked a whole city flat."
Place of Death
St. Lucia's volcano is named "Qualibou," a Carib Indian word for "place of death." Located outside Soufriere and billed as the Caribbean' s only "drive-in volcano" because it is accessible by road, Qualibou is a desolate field of steaming jets, warm waterfalls and boiling pools of mud where a heavy sulphur smell hangs in the air. A tourist magnet, the area also is a favorite of local families, who come for the health benefits of swimming in its sulfur springs. A local entrepreneur sells soap made from the thick, black iron sulfide - rich mud.
Technically, Qualibou is not a volcano but what is left of a volcano that erupted and collapsed about 39,000 years ago, tour guide Pontian Simon said. "This is not a true volcano, but rather the result of a volcano," he said. Simon said St. Lucia's original settlers, the Arawaks, worshiped their fire god Yokaho at the volcano. The Carib Indians who defeated the Arawaks also considered Qualibou a special place. "Legend has it that maybe they used to sacrifice humans in it for in it for the gods of the volcano," he said. On a more benign note, he said sulfur for gunpowder and matches was mined there in the 18th century. A 20th century project, on hold for lack of funds, looked at ways to harvest energy from Qualibou' s steam vents to generate electricity.
Kick 'em Jenny
Probably the most picturesquely named Caribbean volcano is Kick 'em Jenny, which lies underwater near Grenada. According to local folklore, the volcano got its name because of the way the sea moves during an eruption, sending nearby fishing boats flying as if they had been kicked by a female ass, or "Jenny." Scientists have recorded 11 minor eruptions of Kick 'em Jenny in the past 52 years and the volcano has been rising slowly toward the surface, where it may someday become the Caribbean's newest island.
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