Mayaro chairman: All mud craters being investigated

MAYARO/Rio Claro Regional Corporation chairman Raymond Cozier said the corporation is taking proactive steps to prevent the potential repeat of the February 22, 1997 Piparo mud volcano eruption happening in Cascadoux Trace, Mayaro.

"It seems like that Cascadoux area is like sitting on an unofficial time bomb."

He made this comment on Saturday after visiting the site of a new mud volcano in Cascadoux Trace.

An eruption happened there on January 11, forcing residents from two households to evacuate.

Cozier told Newsday, "There is no active movement in the crater today. Yesterday, it was erupting every 15-20 minutes."

He said it is difficult to predict when there could be another eruption.

Cozier compared this eruption with the 1997 eruption in Piparo.

"For umpteen years it was just there and nothing happened, and then one day the village was lost."

In 1997, the village of Piparo was declared a disaster area and 300 residents were evacuated when the mud volcano erupted, throwing mud 200 feet into the air. Some livestock were killed, 30 homes were destroyed and water and electricity supplies to the village were knocked out.

Cozier said teams from the corporation's disaster management unit (DMU) were out in the field on Saturday, going house to house and talking to villagers about mud craters in the area.

"We are engaging on a plan right now to do an investigation of all the areas to identify all known (mud) craters."

Cozier said once all this information is compiled, there will be a meeting with the villagers to discuss a more in-depth plan to deal with any future mud volcano eruptions.

He said a sign in the area which is used to alert people to the threat of a tsunami will be updated to do the same for mud volcano eruptions.

An assessment of the new mud volcano in Cascadoux Trace began on Saturday, led by geologist Xavier Moonan, who is also the exploration manager at Touchstone Exploration.

He has previously done work on mud volcanoes, even discovering six along the country's southwestern coast in 2020.

Cozier said a member of the UWI Seismic Research Unit is also involved in the assessment.

Apart from assessing the site of the new mud volcano, Cozier said a villager took them to see other mud craters in the area.

Samples have been taken from the new volcano, along with mud from the original volcano established there years ago. Cozier said the tests on these samples will determine whether there is any connection between the two volcanoes.

He said the situation remains scary for the families who were evacuated from the site last week. It is unclear at this stage whether they will be able to return to their homes or may need to relocate.

He said more in-depth tests will be done on the mud volcano.