The island of St. Lucia claims to have the worlds only "drive-in volcano"
what exactly do they mean by this?
Matthew,
I presume it is the local tourist authority that claims St.
Lucia has the "world's only drive in volcano" for anyone who has been to
Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii knows that there are others! I
believe that the St. Lucia reference is to a small field of steaming jets
and boiling pools of water called Qualibou soufriere (the latter word
simply means a place where gases and hot water come out of the ground).
The only historic activity (1766) occurred near the soufriere and was
really just a steam eruption, rather than a significant volcanic eruption
with new magma.
The soufriere field is inside a 4 mile (~6.5 km) wide horseshoe
shaped caldera that is open to the Caribbean Sea. The last major eruption
was about 40,000 years ago, but the caldera should be considered active,
and liable to erupt again. And there is a road that allows tourists and
scientists to drive into the caldera and near the soufriere!
Chuck Wood, University of North Dakota
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