Dear Fellow Colleagues !!

 

It is my pleasure and honour to have accepted the assignment of conducting a Workshop at the 18th Caribbean Geological Conference to be held in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic from the 23rd thru the 30th of March 2008.  The Workshop will be called "Workshop on Assessment of volcanic activity and volcanic hazards in the Caribbean".

 

During this workshop we will be examining major questions concerning the general trends of Holocene volcanic activity in the Caribbean, including documentation of recent volcanic eruptions, prevention of volcanic hazards and mitigation of volcanic catastrophes. This workshop is aimed to debate the current and new volcanological results produced by on-going investigations and research within in the Caribbean and surroundings. The Workshop will present  the current eruption status and forecast for all volcanoes within the Caribbean Plate boundaries.  The forecast is upgraded from time to time as appropriate and as necessary.  The forecasting and risk assessment has been compiled, using presently loaded data, from the SWVRC software programme, Eruption Pro 10.6, the only known long-range and reasonably accurate forecasting programme of it kind in the world.

 

In addition, the potential for a disaster on the east coast of the United States and the Caribbean areas grows as the geological evidence suggests that during a future eruption of Cumbre Vieja, on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, could cause a catastrophic failure of its west flank.  This failure, if it occurs, could cause a landslide of 150 to 500 km3 of rock into the ocean causing a mega-tsunami.  Waves generated by the landslide of a 500 km3 (150 km3) slide block at 100 m/s could transit the Atlantic ocean and arrive on the coasts of the United States and in the Caribbean with a 10-25 m (3-8m) height. 

 

At this time, those people interested in the workshop can e-mail to me their ideas, propositions, etc.. I am soliciting research presentations from concerned all countries within the Caribbean area but particularly the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica,  Panama, Columbia and Venezuela and the island nations represented in the Lesser Antilles that will address these above mentioned items.  Both oral and/or poster presentations are welcome.  

 

So if you would like to contribute and participate in this Workshop, please e-mail me at swvrc.usa.net as soon as possible in order that we can start putting the Workshop agenda together.  It is my goal to make this a very productive and useful Workshop.  Please participate and many thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

Respectfully,

 

SOUTHWEST VOLCANO RESEARCH CENTRE

 

"R.B."

 

R. B. Trombley, Ph.D.
Director & Principal Research Volcanologist

 

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