Mayon acting up anew

LEGAZPI CITY – After at least four days of silence, state seismologists yesterday detected a sudden spike in the number of volcanic quakes around Mayon Volcano.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said that from seven on Saturday, they monitored 143 volcanic quakes yesterday morning.

Aside from the increased seismic events, seismologists also observed higher sulfur dioxide emissions, more intense lava fountaining and lava flow from the volcano.

“Maybe the large and intense earthquakes that our instruments recorded in the past days are the prelude to Mayon’s renewed high level of unrest,” Mariton Bornas, Phivolcs monitoring division chief, told The STAR.

Bornas said these recent activities of Mayon prevented them from lowering the Alert Level 4 to three this week.

“We were about to decide the other night to lower the alert level when Mayon shook again more than a hundred times. Its lava fountaining, lava flows and pyroclastic flows became intense again,” she said.

Bornas said they would extend their timetable on lowering the alert level for at least another week.

“We have to be very cautious this time. Mayon’s behavior remains unpredictable,” she said, adding a team was dispatched yesterday to assess lahar flows in the Anoling and Miissi channels in Camalig and Daraga, both in Albay respectively.