Blasts won’t change Mayon alert status, says Phivolcs

ALERT Government volcanologists have asked residents in villages around Mt. Mayon in Albay province not to enter the danger zones even as the volcano remains on Alert Level 2 following steam-driven explosions on Monday. —MARK ALVIC ESPLANA

LEGAZPI CITY — Steam-driven eruptions were recorded on Mt. Mayon on Monday but the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said this would not change the alert status hoisted over the volcano.

In a telephone interview, Renato Solidum, Phivolcs director, said the phreatic explosions on Monday were triggered when groundwater underneath the volcano vent mixed with hot steam or pressure.

Solidum said alert status on the volcano remained at Level 2, meaning it was at a moderate level of unrest.

Crater glow

He said an intense crater glow, among other parameters, should be observed before a change in the volcano’s alert status would be considered.

So far, the volcano had exhibited mild to moderate crater glows, Phivolcs said.

“There are no other parameters except for the bulging of the edifice at the southeast sector as indicated by our precise level data last October,” Solidum said.

The swelling of the edifice is caused by magma infusion, he said.

On Monday, gray to grayish white ash plumes from Mayon, occurring between 7:59 a.m. and 8:05 a.m., reached 300 to 500 meters above the volcano’s summit before drifting southwest.

Solidum reiterated the agency’s warning to residents around the volcano not to enter the 6-kilometer radius permanent danger zone, including the precautionary 7-km radius extended danger zone in the south-southwest to east-northeast sector, stretching from Barangay Anoling in Camalig town to Barangay Sta. Misericordia in Sto. Domingo town, both in Albay province. —Reports from Mar S. Arguelles and Michael Jaucian