Five miles north of Grenada in the West Indies, a volcano is buried 591 feet below the water’s surface in the Caribbean Sea. Unknown until 1939, when it shot steam and debris some 900 feet up into the air, Kick ‘Em Jenny is an active submerged volcano with a quite fitting name.
Once the volcano made its voice heard, it caught the attention of the people of Grenada, who were tasked with devising a name for it. There are multiple theories as to the origins of the strange name they chose. Some believe that “Kick ‘Em Jenny” comes from some violent incident that a Grenadian had with a female donkey (also known as a jenny). A more obscure proposition claims the name comes from the similar sounding cay que gêne, or “the turbulent cay.”
The name likely came from a small island now called Diamond Island, which, on certain maps, was also referred to as Kick ‘Em Jenny prior to 1939. Regardless of its disputed etymology, the so-named volcano is a wary concern for boats traveling in its vicinity, and, as far as we know, it remains the only live volcano in the Eastern Caribbean.
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