Philvolcs lifts high-risk alert in areas around Mt. Pinatubo

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Despite the continuing rains over Mt. Pinatubo in Central Luzon, the two-kilometer wide crater lake at the volcano’s summit is no longer in danger of collapsing, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said yesterday.

Jaime Sincioco, Phivolcs resident volcanologist here, said that the kilometer-long canal built by experts at the Maraunot notch of Mt. Pinatubo in Zambales has been efficiently draining the waters from the crater lake despite continuing rains. The canal, which was dug up a meter wide, is now about four to six meters in width.

"The depth of the lake is now low and because of this, more beaches have appeared around it. With the canal now wider, it has become quite capable of providing outlet for the waters being dumped by the rains into the crater," Sincioco told The Star.

Three major lahar channels in Zambales, Pampanga, and Tarlac have become mere stream flow paths, Philvocs added. Meanwhile, powerful secondary explosions on the volcanic slopes are no longer observed and lahar danger levels in threatened communities have been downgraded.

Sincioco said that the high-risk classification of many towns around Mt. Pinatubo has been downgraded to either medium or low risk. He noted that only those within protective anti-lahar diking system remain in the Phivolcs’ list of areas classified as under high risk.

He added that only stream flows have been observed in the formerly dangerous Pasig-Potrero river. The Sto. Tomas-Marella river facing San Marcelino and the Bucao-Balin Baquero river facing Botolan, both in Zambales, and the Sacobia-O’Donnel river systems in Tarlac also no longer flow lahar, which used to be common along the channels.