After a few days of lull, Mayon Volcano incessantly spewed lava and puffed ash columns that went as high as 10 kilometers from its summit on Monday, prompting the military and the local government units to scramble trucks and other vehicles to evacuate thousands of more people along the path of lava and pyroclastic materials outside the permanent danger zone.

Dr. Paul Alanis, volcanologist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology (Phivolcs) here, described the 12:43 p.m. eruption as a hazardous one and this served as the basis to declare Alert Level 4.

“With this kind of eruption, we are now at Alert Level 4,” Alanis told the Manila Bulletin while watching the high ash columns and flowing pyroclastic materials here at the Phivolcs Observatory center at the Lignon (pronounced as “lin-yon”) Hill in Legazpi City.

Alanis said Monday’s eruption is described as a volcanian type explosive eruption, which was last seen during the 2001 eruption.

Alert Level 4 means it is only a matter of hours or days before more hazardous eruptions occur, according to Alanis.

The tons of ashes that were spewed by the volcano were carried by the winds towards the direction of Camalig, Daraga and Guinobatan towns in the second district and Ligao City, Oas and Polangui in the third district of Albay.

As a result, Alanis said they will recommend further extension of the danger zone to eight kilometers in the southern part of the Mayon Volcano where the towns of Camalig, Daraga, Guinobatan are located.

After the first phreatic explosion occurred on Saturday two weeks ago, the imposition of no-man zone within the six kilometer danger zone was effected.

After the Mayon Volcano erupted anew on January 15, the danger zone was extended to seven-kilometer also in the southern part of Mayon Volcano.

Lava fountain

After a lull since January 17, lava eruption and lava collapse were monitored at 10:45 p.m. on Sunday followed by similar incidents at 2:25 a.m. today.

Three episodes of volcanic earthquake, two of them were due to lava fountaining, 64 rockfall events and one pyroclastic density current (PDC) were recorded.

The 10:45 p.m. lava eruption generated 500 meters high lava fountain while the second one was measured to be at 200 meters from the summit.

“The ash plumes rose 1,300 meters above the summit. The ash falls drifted towards southwest and ash falls were experienced in some barangays of Oas and Guinobatan towns,” said Alanis.

“The lava fountains signified an increase in mass eruption rate as lava was observed to be flowing more voluminously than before,” he added.

As a result, the lava flow was diverted towards two new gullies—Bonga Gully and upper Buyuan.

The lava has been flowing towards Miisi gulley since Monday.

This is it!

At 10:22 a.m. today, an ash column was spewed and reached as high as one kilometer from the crater.

At 12:14 p.m., a huge volume of pyroclastic density current (composed of ashes, gases and lava) was seen crawling down from the crater along the Miisi gully.

After a loud explosion was heard and a huge ash column was seen at 12:43 p.m., Phivolcs promptly declared Alert Level 4.

Alanis said the next level, Alert Level 5, means hazardous eruption is continuous.

Following the hazardous eruption, the military immediately scrambled its truck and other vehicles along with the police and the local government units.

Currently, there are 7,265 families composed of 27,692 people staying in 26 evacuation centers in various areas here in Albay.

Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal said he immediately ordered evacuation from eight and nine kilometres away.

It was recalled that more or less 12,000 residents were initially evacuated in Legazpi City last week as part of the preemptive evacuation.

But Rosal had ordered the return of the residents to their home due to the lull, adding that those evacuated were still outside the permanent and seven-kilometer danger zone.

“We are ordering the evacuation again of our constituents because of this development,” said Rosal.

The number of evacuees is at around 12,000 from the barangays of Buyuan, Mabinit, Bonga, Matanag and Padang.

Class suspension

Classes were supposed to start today but some classes were already suspended in some areas near the danger zones due to the lava fountaining since Sunday night.

In Legazpi City, Rosal told the Manila Bulletin that he had suspended the classes in Buyuan, Mabinit, Bonga, Matanag—all of them near the eight-kilometer danger zone.

Dr. Cedric Daep, head of the Albay Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Council, said that they had been receiving requests for class suspension in areas that experienced ash falls in the third district of Albay, particularly in Polangui, Oas and Guinobatan.

“But we advise them that it is up to them,” said Daep.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Aaron Recuenco

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]