Alert Level 4 Remains Over Mayon

MANILA, Dec. 23 - Scenic Mayon Volcano continues to send booming sounds and columns of ashes as high as 1000 meters across villages surrounding the mountain, but the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) clarified alert level 4 remains hoisted over the area.

This means a hazardous eruption is possible within days, the Phivolcs said in a bulletin issued Wednesday.

Phivolcs on Sunday raised the alert level at Mayon to "4," meaning "Intense unrest" characterized by persistent tremors, low-frequency quakes and intense crater glow.

Alert Level 5, or "Hazardous eruption ongoing," involves pyroclastic flows, tall eruption columns and extensive ashfall.

Under Alert Level 5, there is danger to aircraft by way of ash cloud encounter, depending on the height of eruption column and/or wind drift.

Mayon showed an intense level of activity during the past 24-hour observation period with 1,051 volcanic earthquakes and continuous harmonic tremors recorded.

Sixty six (66) ash explosions were observed during times of good visibility. These explosions produced grayish to light brown ash columns that reached height from 100 to 1000 meters above the summit before drifting towards southwest.

The Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) emission rate remained very high and was measured at an average of 6,737 tons per day (t/d) on Tuesday.

Two hundred eighty (280) audible booming and rumbling sounds were intermittently heard for the past 24 hours. Red hot lava also continuously flowed down along the Bonga-Buyuan, Miisi and Lidong gullies.

The Phivolcs-Department of Science and Technology (DOST) reiterated that the Extended Danger Zone (EDZ) from the summit of eight kilometers on the southern sector of the volcano and seven-km on the northern sector should be free from human activity.

Areas just outside of this EDZ should prepare for evacuation in the event hazardous explosive eruptions intensify, it said.

Amid bad weather, the Phivolcs warned residents particularly those living along river channels and those perennially identified as lahar prone in the southern sector against coming back home to check on their houses due to danger of flashfloods and sudden lahar flow.

PHIVOLCS-DOST is closely monitoring Mayon Volcano's activity and any new significant development will be immediately posted to all concerned, it said. (PNA)