The UWI Regional Headquarters Jamaica. 11 October 2016 – The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has entered a renewed contract with the Government of Montserrat to provide management and support for the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) which conducts monitoring and research activities on the Soufriere Hills Volcano.
The new monitoring contract runs for five years and was signed on September 13, 2016 by Professor Dale Webber, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Research at The UWI and by Her Excellency, Elizabeth Anne Carriere OBE, and Governor of Montserrat.
Montserrat’s Soufrière Hills Volcano has been erupting since 1995, rendering more than half of the island uninhabitable, including the capital city Plymouth. Since the onset of the eruption, the volcano has been closely monitored and heavily researched. Through careful management and implementation of volcano risk reduction strategies, Montserrat has managed to rebuild itself and adapt to living with an erupting volcano.
The UWI, through its Trinidad and Tobago-based Seismic Research Centre has been contracted to provide six scientific staff members (including the Director) to work at MVO. It will also provide support services and updates to the MVO’s monitoring equipment, including a complete replacement of the seismic monitoring network. The UWI has also been tasked to develop training courses which will be based at MVO and will continue to facilitate research at this live laboratory to better understand how volcanic systems function in Montserrat and by extension the wider Eastern Caribbean.
Speaking on the partnership, Professor Webber said “I am very pleased that the Government of Montserrat has decided to renew this contract. It shows that The UWI can provide world-class scientists and world-class science to deliver a service that is crucial in the ongoing development of Montserrat”.
Governor Carriere said “The Seismic Research Centre has been managing and supporting Montserrat Volcano Observatory since 2008. In that time, they and the MVO have provided excellent information and advice to successive Governors and to the government and the people of Montserrat. This contract serves as recognition of the outstanding quality of the work carried out by the observatory and the staff there and of the need for that work to continue in the future”.
During his trip to Montserrat, Professor Webber visited the MVO and toured the former capital city of Plymouth. Professor Webber is the highest ranking UWI official to visit Montserrat since the University began management of the MVO and his presence demonstrates the University’s commitment to ensuring that its activities have meaningful impact on the people it serves.
PHOTO CAPTIONS
Her Excellency the Governor Elizabeth Carriere and Pro Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Dale Webber sign the new MVO management contract. Photo: Jerely Brown/MVO.
Dr Richard Robertson (left) and Pro Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Dale Webber inspect the buried and abandoned city of Plymouth at the foot of the Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat. Photo: Roderick Stewart/MVO.
About the Seismic Research Centre
The Seismic Research Centre of The University of the West Indies monitors earthquakes and volcanoes for the English-speaking islands of the Eastern Caribbean. The SRC also jointly manages the Montserrat Volcano Observatory with the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP).
With the combined network of the SRC and these cooperating agencies the Centre is able to provide continuous information about earthquakes as they happen, to carry out specialist studies of particularly significant earthquakes immediately after they happen, and to regularly update estimates of the level of earthquake hazard in the region. This is critical information for the development of earthquake-resistant building codes, planning for seismic emergencies and the planning of important infrastructural projects which are vulnerable to earthquake effects.
In addition to providing services in volcanology and seismology to the governments of the contributing countries, the SRC also provides consultancy services in various aspects of Applied Seismology, Geochemistry, Engineering Geophysics and Geology to both local and international insurance companies as well as civil engineering establishments. Additionally, scientists at the Centre are actively involved in a regional effort to establish a tsunami warning system for the Caribbean and adjacent areas. In recent years, the Centre has become more heavily involved in public education through traveling exhibitions, school lectures both on and off site, website development and regional public education campaigns.
About The UWI
Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a fully-fledged, regional University with over 50,000 students. Today, The UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with three physical campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and an Open Campus. The UWI serves 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, The British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos. The UWI’s faculty and students come from more than 40 countries and The University has collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. The UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation.
(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.) Visit www.uwi.edu
