Dominica's lake stops boiling

Saturday, January 1, 2005

ROSEAU, Dominica: Dominica’s Boiling Lake has mysteriously stopped boiling for the third time in a century, Britain's Press Association reported Friday.

The Boiling Lake, one of the Caribbean island’s most prominent tourist attractions, is a volcanic crater about 200ft wide and 50ft deep. It is at the end of a mountain trail in the heart of a rain forest, about six miles east of the capital of Roseau.

Tour guides noticed it was no longer bubbling or steaming on Sunday after the water level had dropped about 40ft, said chief forestry officer Arlington James.

The same thing is known to have happened in 1901, 1977 and 1999. But the water level can rise quickly, and in 1901, toxic sulphuric fumes killed two people when the lake suddenly filled up, James said.

Sulphuric fumes from the lake have destroyed much of the rain forest around it. The lake is so hot that it can boil an egg in five minutes, James said.

There are 10 volcanoes in Dominica, one of several volcanic islands in the eastern Caribbean. The islands – including Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, St Lucia and St Vincent – are at the convergence of two tectonic plates.

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