PHIVOLCS maintains Alert 3 on Mayon Volcano amid continued unrest

Mayon Volcano in Albay continued its unrest with a slow lava effusion and hazardous volcanic activity, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) reported Monday.

At 5 a.m., the Mayon Volcano Observatory monitored a slow effusion of lava from the summit crater that reached a distance of up to four kilometers.

The incandescent pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) moved down the slope along the Miisi, Bonga, and Basud Gullies.

PHIVOLCS maintained an Alert Level 3 over Mayon, which means that it is currently in a relatively high level of unrest, and a hazardous eruption within weeks or even days was possible.

In the past 24 hours, the Mayon Volcano Network recorded 141 volcanic earthquakes, including one 139 volcanic tremors that had durations of one to five minutes, a pyroclastic density current (PDC) event, and 84 rockfalls.

Rockfalls and PDCs generated by the collapse of the summit dome deposited debris still within four kilometers of the crater.

Volcanic sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions averaged 920 tonnes/day last Sunday, November 5.

Due to the volcanic hazard dangers, PHIVOLCS recommended that the six-km radius Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ) remain evacuated.

The agency also warned against PDCs, lahars, and sediment-laden streamflows, especially if accompanied by heavy rainfall.

PHIVOLCS also called on civil aviation authorities to advise pilots to avoid flying close to the volcano’s summit “as ash from any sudden eruption can be hazardous to aircraft. Based on the current prevailing wind pattern, ash fall events may most likely occur on the south side of the volcano." — DVM, GMA Integrated News