NewsTracker Answers for week of Jan. 04, 2021

Q: Volcanoes that have been quiet for decades are rumbling to life in the eastern Caribbean, prompting officials to issue alerts for islands of Martinique and St. Vincent in the Lesser Antilles. Where are the Lesser Antilles, a string of islands that form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea?

Circle the area on this map


Q: La Soufriere on St. Vincent and Mount Pelee on Martinique are among 19 live volcanoes in the eastern Caribbean which are tied to the movement of . . .

A. Earth’s orbit

B. Ocean waters

C. Tectonic plates

D. Tropical air


C. The rigid outermost shell of the Earth’s crust is broken into tectonic plates which move above and below each other over millions of years. That movement also causes earthquakes and volcanoes where the plates collide or separate, The Lesser Antilles islands and volcanoes were formed as a result of the subduction of the Atlantic Plate under the Caribbean Plate.


Q: Seventeen of the Lesser Antilles’ live volcanoes are located on 11 islands, with the remaining two are underwater near what tiny island nation invaded by the United States in 1983?

A. Antigua

B. Barbados

C. Dominica

D. Grenada


D. One of the underwater volcanoes near Grenada is called Kick ‘em Jenny, the most active volcano in the Antilles Arc. U.S. troops invaded Grenada to depose a military Marxist regime which had seized power. The United States said it invaded at the behest of Barbados and Dominica, but Britain, Canada and the UN General Assembly criticized the action.


Q: Volcanologists say the renewed activities of the two Caribbean volcanoes are not related and “falls into the category of coincidence.” Where is the world’s largest active volcano?

A. Hawaii

B. Iceland

C. New Zealand

D. Sumatra


A. Hawaii’s Mauna Loa is the biggest active volcano on Earth, according to National Geographic. It is thought to have been erupting more or less continuously for 700,000 years now. Due to its frequent lava flows, it poses a great risk to surrounding communities.


Q: Unlike the Lesser Antilles volcanoes on the edge of colliding tectonic plates, Mauna Loa and the Hawaiian Islands were formed by a “hot spot” in the middle of the Pacific Plate. Which volcanic island was created where tectonic plates are spreading apart?

A. Bali

B. Iceland

C. Java

D. Sumatra


B. Iceland arose from the underwater Mid-Atlantic Ridge which was created by magma rising from below and pushing apart the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in the North Atlantic and the South American and African plates in the south. Bali, Java and Sumatra are in Indonesia which has more volcanoes than any other nation.