Kick 'em Jenny (also: Kick-'em-Jenny or Mt. Kick-'Em-Jenny) is an active

submarine volcano Submarine volcanoes are underwater vents or fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. Many submarine volcanoes are located near areas of tectonic plate formation, known as mid-ocean ridges. The volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges ...

seamount A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean floor without reaching the water surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet, or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly a ...

on the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

floor, located north of the island of

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

and about west of Ronde Island in the

Grenadines The Grenadines () is a chain of small islands that lie on a line between the larger islands of Saint Vincent and Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. Nine are inhabited and open to the public (or ten, if the offshore island of Young Island is counted ...

. Kick-'em-Jenny rises above the sea floor on the steep inner western slope of the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

ridge. The South American tectonic plate is

subducting Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second pla ...

the Caribbean tectonic plate to the east of this ridge and under the Lesser Antilles island arc.

Etymology

The volcano was unknown before 1939, although "Kick 'em Jenny" appeared on earlier maps as either the name of a small island now called Diamond Rock (or Île Diamante), or the name of the strait between Grenada and Ronde Island (or Île de Ronde). The name itself may be a reference to the waters sometimes being extremely rough.

Activity

The first record of the volcano was in 1939, although it must have erupted many times before that date. On 23–24 July 1939 an eruption broke the sea surface, sending a cloud of steam and debris into the air and generating a series of

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

s around high when they reached the coastlines of northern Grenada and the southern Grenadines. A small tsunami also reached the west coast of nearby

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

, where "a sea-wave" suddenly washed over a coastal road, most likely at Paynes Bay. The volcano has erupted on at least twelve occasions between 1939 and 2017 (the last being on April 29, 2017), although no subsequent eruption has been as large as the 1939 one, and most were only detected by seismographs. The larger eruptions have also been heard underwater or on land close to the volcano as a deep rumbling sound. A submersible survey in 2003 detected a crater with active

fumarole A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or another rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

s releasing cold and hot gas bubbles. Samples of fresh

olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron Silicate minerals, silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of Nesosilicates, nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle, it is a com ...

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

were collected. An arc-shaped collapse structure appears on the west flank and was the apparent source of a submarine debris avalanche extending down the ridge slope to the west toward the Grenada Basin. The

Global Volcanism Program The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP) documents Earth's volcanoes and their eruptive history during the Quaternary Period of Earth's geologic history, with particular emphasis on volcanic activity during the Holocene Epoc ...

reports the summit to be below the sea surface. Signs of elevated seismicity began July 11, 2015, and on July 23 a strong continuous signal was recorded by instruments observing Kick 'em Jenny, prompting authorities to raise the alert level to orange, which is the second-highest level. The following day, July 24, at 02:00 an hourlong explosion event was recorded, scientists from the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre observed nothing out of the ordinary at the surface above the volcano during an overflight on 25 July, and by 18:00 no activity was recorded. On 26 July the Alert Level was lowered to Yellow.

Maritime exclusion zone

The volcano is on the shipping route from St Vincent to Grenada. There is a Maritime Exclusion Zone monitored by the Seismic Research Centre of the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

. The zone normally encompasses a circle with a radius of from the centre of the volcano. Bubbles of volcanic gases can lower water density, creating a sinking hazard. This is marked on marine charts. During periods of high seismic activity, the zone is expanded to a radius.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kick-'Em-Jenny Seamounts of the Caribbean Volcanoes of Grenada Seamounts of the Atlantic Ocean Submarine volcanoes Active volcanoes Former islands from the last glacial maximum

Etymology

Activity

Maritime exclusion zone

See also

References