Outmatched

The floor of the house M. and I live in is covered entirely in high gloss faux white marble ceramic tiles. Not only is it hideously unstylish, it is incredibly difficult to maintain. Every speck of dirt, every strand of hair is immediately apparent. Inconvenient then, since the house is kept open and I shed like a Saint Bernard.

I like a clean house, and so its already been quite a change graduating from small apartments to a medium-sized house. Whereas I could clean house in an hour in my old apartment, it takes me almost an hour just to sweep here.

Imagine my dismay, then, to find my floor littered with gray bits the day after sweeping. I thought it might be ash from neighbors' fires. Here, people often burn refuse from the house and garden in small fires. But the gray bits have been appearing - highly contrasted against the white tile floor - for the past several weeks, with no fires in sight in the neighborhood.

M. surmised that it might not be ash from any small bonfire, but volcanic ash from neighboring Montserrat. On December 2nd, the Montserrat Volcano Observatory reported an explosion and pyroclastic flow. More than one month later, activity is still high, with new explosions reported on January 3rd.


Above, Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat, taken on Dec 3rd, 2009 by Christian Guichoux (1)

From the NASA Earth Observatory website, there are pictures of the ash plume, which had already traveled 85 kilometers (53 miles) south-southwest by December 30. Residual ash had traveled 325 kilometers (202 miles) west-southwest. But the direction of the ash plume and the residual ash must be varied, as this image shows the plume extending eastward.

Above, the ash plume produced by explosions in the Soufrière Hills volcano. Guadeloupe is circled in red.

Because Guadeloupe is only 48 kilometers (30 miles) south east of Montserrat, it seems highly likely that we should be getting some of the ash. I like to think I am capable of keeping house, but I don't think even Martha Stewart could beat a volcano.

I hate to think of the mess should our very own Soufrière decide to erupt.

(1) Terre et Volcans