Science & Nature · Guadeloupe
La Soufrière: the Guadeloupe volcano that is never left unwatched
La Soufrière is an active explosive volcano in Basse-Terre. Monitored around the clock from an observatory in Gourbeyre, it once triggered one of the largest evacuations in Caribbean history.
A volcano born where two plates meet
The Lesser Antilles form a volcanic arc: the American plate slowly dives beneath the Caribbean plate. That subduction feeds the magmas that rise and build the volcanoes of the arc, La Soufrière among them.
La Soufrière belongs to the explosive family. Its activity is not made of long, quiet lava flows but of phases of pressure, fracturing and projections, separated by long calm periods.
Continuous scientific monitoring since 1950
Permanent observation of the volcano was organised from 1950 onwards. Today monitoring is carried out by the Guadeloupe volcanological and seismological observatory, under the responsibility of the Institut de physique du globe de Paris.
The observatory sits at Houëlmont, in the town of Gourbeyre. Seismometers, ground deformation measurements and gas analysis track the behaviour of the volcano continuously.
1976-1977: the crisis nobody forgot
The 1976-1977 volcanic crisis remains a turning point. More than 70,000 people were evacuated for several months, amid intense scientific and political debate.
That episode durably changed the way natural hazards are monitored and explained in Guadeloupe: measure better, inform better, prepare better.