TWO weeks since placing Mayon Volcano in Albay under Alert Level 3 (increased tendency towards hazardous eruption), the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) yesterday said there remains no reason to further raise the alert status.
“If there is an increase in earthquakes, if there will be lava fountaining, there is increase in rockfall events, increase in rockfall events, we will raise it to Alert Level 4 (hazardous eruption is imminent),” Phivolcs officer-in-charge Teresito Bacolcol said in a briefing.
He said there should also be an increase in sulfur dioxide emission.
“We are not seeing these (parameters) at present (to warrant the raising of Mayon’s alert status),” said Bacolcol, adding Mayon “continues to show effusive eruption, meaning there is still a slow release of magma from the edifice of the volcano.”
Phivolcs placed Mayon Volcano under Alert Level 3 on June 8 due to increasing volcanic activity, specifically increased rockfall events.
Bacolcol said during the latest 24-hour monitoring period (5 a.m. Tuesday to 5 a.m. yesterday), Phivolcs recorded two volcanic quakes, from one compared to the previous period; 299 rockfall events, from 301; and seven pyroclastic density current events, from two.
The volcano’s sulfur dioxide emission was measured at 507 tons from Tuesday to Wednesday, up from 389 tons during the previous period.
About 20,000 individuals living inside the six-kilometer permanent danger zone and nearby areas have been evacuated under Alert Level 3. If Alert Level 4 is raised, the danger zone may be extended to eight kilometers and may warrant the evacuation of 25,000 more individuals.
“We’re not seeing any indication to expand the permanent danger zone… so we’re still steady at six-kilometer permanent danger zone,” said Bacolcol.
Bacolcol said the current activity of Mayon is similar to the effusive eruption in 2014. “There was lava flow but it later stopped,” he said, referring to the August to November effusive eruption in 2014.
