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Events in the year 2021 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines .
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Events in the year 2021 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines .
Ongoing — COVID-19 pandemic in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies, at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea, where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean.
The indigineous inhabitants of the islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines were various Amerindian groups. The arrivals of Europeans in the early 16th century did not lead to long term settlement, only in 1717 did the French occupy the island in Barrouallie, though the English laid claim on St. Vincent in 1627. The Treaty of Paris (1763) saw St. Vincent ceded to Britain. Frictions with the British led to the First and Second Carib War in the mid- to late-18th century but the British held on to the islands. A Crown Colony government was installed in 1877, a Legislative Council created in 1925, and universal adult suffrage granted in 1951. Following a referendum in 1979, St. Vincent and the Grenadines became the last of the Windward Islands to gain independence on 27 October 1979.
Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean. It is the largest island of the country Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and is located in the Caribbean Sea, between Saint Lucia and Grenada. It is composed of partially submerged volcanic mountains. Its largest volcano and the country's highest peak, La Soufrière, is active, with the latest episode of volcanic activity having begun in December 2020 and intensifying in April 2021.
Mount Pelée or Mont Pelée is an active volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas department in the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of stratified layers of hardened ash and solidified lava. Its most recent eruption was in 1932.
The Soufrière Hills are an active, complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. After a long period of dormancy, the Soufrière Hills volcano became active in 1995 and has continued to erupt ever since. Its eruptions have rendered more than half of Montserrat uninhabitable, destroying the capital city, Plymouth, and causing widespread evacuations: about two-thirds of the population have left the island. Chances Peak in the Soufrière Hills was the highest summit on Montserrat until the mid-1990s, but it has since been eclipsed by various rising and falling volcanic domes during the recent volcanic activity.
In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular, mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on Earth are lava dome forming. The geochemistry of lava domes can vary from basalt to rhyolite although the majority are of intermediate composition The characteristic dome shape is attributed to high viscosity that prevents the lava from flowing very far. This high viscosity can be obtained in two ways: by high levels of silica in the magma, or by degassing of fluid magma. Since viscous basaltic and andesitic domes weather fast and easily break apart by further input of fluid lava, most of the preserved domes have high silica content and consist of rhyolite or dacite.
La Soufrière or Soufrière Saint Vincent is an active stratovolcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is the highest peak in Saint Vincent, and has had five recorded explosive eruptions since 1718. The latest eruptive activity began on 27 December 2020 with the slow extrusion of a dome of lava, and culminated in a series of explosive events between 9 and 22 April 2021.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) is a moderate conservative political party in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The party is led by Godwin Friday, and is currently the official opposition in the House of Assembly.
Chateaubelair is a large fishing village on the Leeward (west) coast of the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, the main island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is located just south of the volcano of Soufrière. Commonly referred to as just "' Chateau", it is the focus and the largest community in the North Leeward constituency of St. Vincent, and the fourth largest town in the country.
Peléan eruptions are a type of volcanic eruption. They can occur when viscous magma, typically of rhyolitic or andesitic type, is involved, and share some similarities with Vulcanian eruptions. The most important characteristic of a Peléan eruption is the presence of a glowing avalanche of hot volcanic ash, called a pyroclastic flow. Formation of lava domes is another characteristic. Short flows of ash or creation of pumice cones may be observed as well.
The Rabacca Dry River is a river of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is a seasonal river and will only flow like a normal when there is heavy rainfall. It is located on the outskirts of Georgetown. It was formed as a result of the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano, there is its source.
Sir Robert Baxter Llewelyn (1845–1919) was a colonial administrator in the British Empire.
Jenni Barclay is a professor of volcanology at the University of East Anglia. She works on ways to mitigate volcanic risks, the interactions between rainfall and volcanic activity and the communication of volcanic hazards in the Caribbean. Barclay leads the NERC-ESRC funded Strengthening Resilience to Volcanic Hazards (STREVA) research project as well as a Leverhulme Trust programme looking at the volcanic history of the Ascension Islands.
Richard E. A. Robertson is a Professor of Geology and past Director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre. He studied Geology and Volcanology at Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and Leeds University, United Kingdom.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was a part of the ongoing global viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was confirmed to have reached Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in March 2020. The first confirmed case was discovered on 11 March 2020.
La Soufrière, a stratovolcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, began an effusive eruption on 27 December 2020. On 9 April 2021 there was an explosive eruption, and the volcano "continued to erupt explosively" over the following days, with pyroclastic flows. The activity pattern of the eruption was comparable to that of the event that occurred in 1902, which had a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 4. The volcano is known to have erupted 23 times in the last 4,000 years, and had been dormant since 1979.
Gerard Maximin County is a Trinidadian clergyman and bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kingstown. He was ordained in 1996, and appointed bishop in 2015. In 2016, he entered into a partnership with the Archdiocese of Louisville to renovate the diocesan pastoral center, among other projects intended to aid Kingstown and other small dioceses in the area. In April 2021, following the eruption of the La Soufriere, he sent a message asking for prayers from the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to "bring triumph from tragedy".
Erouscilla "Pat" Joseph is a volcanologist, and Director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre, which oversees seismic and volcanic monitoring of the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean. She led the volcanological management of the 2021 La Soufriere eruptions on Saint Vincent, for which the Seismic Research Centre received global accolades.