Mayon eruption imminent, says Phivolcs

Government workers preparing relief goods at an evacuation center in Guinobatan, Albay, 14 kilometers away from Mayon volcano. JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS/INQUIRER.net

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — After weeks of lull, lava is again flowing out of Mayon, the country’s most active volcano, raising fears an eruption could be imminent, the government volcanology agency said Sunday.

The government has already evacuated around 63,000 people living inside a six-kilometer danger zone around the volcano, after it began to spew out white smoke and some lava last month.

Eduardo Laguerta, resident volcanologist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology in Legazpi‎ City in Albay, told reporters that the lava seen earlier Sunday flowing out of Mayon was a major volcanic activity and that authorities were considering declaring alert level 4 in the area.

Alert level 4 means a hazardous eruption may occur within days or even hours, extending the danger zone to 8 kilometers.

Mayon is now rated on alert level 3 meaning a possible eruption in weeks.

“Magma has started to flow, albeit very viscous, but this is the start,” Laguerta said. ‎

Activity had appeared to quieten down but a fresh cascade this time stretching further down the slopes, has prompted concerns that an eruption may soon take place.

“The first activity started on September 15 and lasted for a few days. After that, there was a lull or no summit activity, but this morning, our volcanologists spotted a lava flow,” Renato Solidum, head of Phivolcs, said in a television interview.

“What is happening now is that there is very slow movement… of lava flow about 350 meters in length from the summit,” he added.

Solidum warned lava flow from Mayon was usually followed by “an explosive phase of eruption” although he could not estimate when such blasts could occur.

He explained magma inside the volcano was now rising to the summit slowly but added that it could accelerate, prompting quakes and small explosions and potentially causing a much larger eruption.

The 2,460-meter Mayon, located about 330 kilometers southwest of Manila, has a long history of deadly eruptions.

Four foreign tourists and their local tour guide were killed when Mayon last erupted, in May 2013.

In 1814 more than 1,200 people were killed when lava flows buried the town of Cagsawa.

An explosion in August 2006 did not cause direct deaths, but four months later a typhoon unleashed an avalanche of volcanic mud from Mayon’s slopes that killed 1,000 people.

The head of civil defense operations around Mayon, Bernardo Alejandro said the government had done an aerial survey of the volcano and cabinet ministers were in the area to assess the needs of people who had fled their homes.

He told AFP they would now be stricter in enforcing a ban on the entry of people into the danger zone.

Among those who conducted the pre-disaster inspection were Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, Health Secretary Enrique Ona, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and Albay Governor Joey Salceda.

Photo by Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net

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