Mayon unrest prompts nearly 3,000 evacuations in Albay

Independent.co reports that a string of low-level eruptions at Mayon Volcano in Albay province has forced authorities to evacuate nearly 3,000 residents living within a permanent danger zone on its lower slopes.

The alert level was raised to level 3 on the country’s five-step warning system on Tuesday after monitors recorded intermittent rockfalls, some as large as cars, and dangerous pyroclastic flows of superheated ash, gas and rocks. "This is already an eruption, a quiet one," Teresito Bacolcol, the Philippines’ chief volcanologist, said, explaining that lava is accumulating near the summit and causing parts of the volcanic dome to crack and trigger repeated rockfalls. Troops, police and disaster-mitigation personnel helped evacuate more than 2,800 villagers from 729 households inside a 6-kilometre radius that is designated a permanent danger zone, and another 600 villagers outside the zone have moved voluntarily to government-run emergency shelters, Claudio Yucot, regional director of the Office of Civil Defence, said.

Bacolcol said it is too early to tell if Mayon’s restiveness will worsen and lead to a major and violent eruption, given the absence of other key signs such as a spike in volcanic earthquakes and high levels of sulfur dioxide emissions. Alert level 5 would indicate a major explosive eruption, often accompanied by violent ejections of ash and debris and widespread ashfall.

Key Topics

World, Mayon Volcano, Albay Province, Teresito Bacolcol, Pyroclastic Flows, Civil Defence