OUTREACH
Volcanic Eruption
an Opportunity for Outreach and Sharing Scholarship Three weeks after students in Barbados had emerged from a second lockdown caused by COVID-19, an unusual public health emergency forced them back indoors. This prompted a public sharing of academic expertise and major mobilisation of the Cave Hill Campus community in a humanitarian outreach effort to assist residents of a neighbouring island.
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ast April, students and others sought shelter from heavy ashfall brought about by a volcanic eruption in neighbouring St. Vincent that threatened respiratory and other ailments. The explosive emissions marked the fifth time in recorded history, and the first time in nearly 42 years, that La Soufrière, the island’s northernmost stratovolcano, had erupted. Residents in Barbados lived under darkened skies for a few days as La Soufrière’s eruptions continued, spewing ash and debris into the air and onto neighbouring islands. When the skies eventually cleared in Bridgetown, the entire island
was blanketed in thick grey ash that had settled on virtually every surface. Sporadic eruptions and continued emissions challenged clean-up efforts and forced a prolonged closure of the Cave Hill Campus. While most people regarded the ash deposits as a nuisance, Director of The UWI’s Centre for Resource
