Sorsogon's Bulusan spews 2-kilometer ash cloud

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines  – Mt. Bulusan in Sorsogon exploded for the sixth time yesterday morning, spewing grayish steam and an ash column that reached about two kilometers above the crater, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.

Phivolcs Monitoring Division chief July Sabit said the explosion lasted for about 10 minutes, starting at 7:22 a.m.

“So far, this is the highest since it started its series of ash explosions last Nov. 6. But we are maintaining alert level 1 because we do not see yet any indication of magma involvement in the Bulusan volcano’s abnormal activities,” Sabit told The STAR in a phone interview.

Sabit said sulfur dioxide and steam trapped inside the crater triggered yesterday’s strong explosion.

Phivolcs said 28 volcanic earthquakes were recorded yesterday.

Sabit said Phivolcs would immediately raise Bulusan’s alert level to 2 once the presence of magma is noted in its ejected volcanic materials.

Records show that Bulusan ejected lava during its 1918-1919 eruption, and was not repeated since then.

With Bulusan’s latest explosion, Sabit said they would step up their monitoring and carefully analyze the data from their equipment and visual observations.

Phivolcs said yesterday’s ashfall, about three millimeters thick, blanketed the villages of Cogon, Sangkayon, Monbon, Irosin proper, Umagon, Bolos and Gulanggulang in Irosin town, and Tulatula, Busay and Sioton in Magallanes town.

Last week, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in Bicol turned over 30,000 face masks should Bulusan spew more ash.

Sabit confirmed that lahar cascaded along the southwest channel of Bulusan, triggered by intermittent rains that lasted for about 30 minutes yesterday.

“We noted the presence of hyper-concentrated lahar up to six kilometers in Barangays Cogon and Monbon in Irosin,” he said.

An Irosin resident, Rolando Purino Jr., died of bronchial asthma last week, which the OCD-Bicol attributed to Bulusan’s ashfall. – With Celso Amo, Alexis Romero and Helen Flores