Three of the seven volcanoes which emerged last week in the agricultural fields of Los Iros are now showing more signs of increased activity.
During an interview with Guardian Media, a senior geoscientist at Touchstone Exploration Xavier Moonan said a seventh vent has become active along RE Road, Los Iros.
“It is currently blasting out mud and gas up to 2 feet in the air at three to four times per minute from the most active one,” Moonan revealed. He added that out of the seven cones, three were active and four were less active.
“The ones which are less active have shown signs of being dried up,” Moonan added.
Since the Guardian broke the story exclusively, tourists have been going to RE Road to see the volcanoes.
Moonan said the area is still considered safe, noting that the volcanoes in this region were not likely to erupt like those in Devils Woodyard or Piparo.
More than 107 acres of land in Los Iros was devastated by the 6.9 magnitude earthquake which rocked T&T and the Eastern Caribbean on 21 August 2018.
Farmers who have been experiencing agricultural losses since the quake have called for relocation but Minister of Agriculture Clarence Rambharat said the government will consider relocating bonafide farmers only.
Most of the farmers of RE Road have no land tenure documents even though they have been farming for over 20 years in some cases.
President of the Los Iros Hillview Farmers Association Rishi Ramraj said he was hoping that the Los Iros area could be developed as an agri-tourist site.
He said it had been almost two years since the earthquake but geologists and seismologists had been doing active research in the area.
