Mayon lava burns crops, grassland

LEGAZPI CITY , Philippines — Lava flow and pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) from Mayon Volcano reached four kilometers from the crater, burning vegetation and grassland along its slopes.

Paul Alanis, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) resident volcanologist at the Lignon Hill Observatory in this city, said smoke from crop and grass fires was visible along the slopes of Mayon.

“Lava fragments and pyroclastic density currents are hitting areas with vegetation and grassland, burning them right away,” Alanis said.

There are several hectares of coconut and vegetable plantations as well as grazing land within Mayon’s permanent danger zone.

Alanis said volcanic debris had reached four kilometers or more than half of the six-kilometer permanent danger zone.

Coconut plantations and grazing fields were burned when lava flows reached up to 6.7 kilometers from the crater of Mayon when it erupted in 2006.

In the past 24 hours, Phivolcs said slow lava effusion from Mayon continued to feed and bulk up 2,800 meters, 2,500 meters and 600 meters along the Mi-isi Gully in Daraga, Bonga in Legazpi City and Basud in Sto. Domingo, respectively.

The agency said 83 low-frequency volcanic earthquakes, three PDCs, 151 rockfall events and volcanic sulfur dioxide that averaged 1,581 tons were monitored.

Mt. Kanlaon restive, too

Meanwhile, an increase in the seismic activity of Mount Kanlaon in Negros has been monitored since Thursday.

Phivolcs said 35 volcanic quakes were recorded.

“These earthquakes ranged from magnitude 0.9 to magnitude 2.3 and occurred at depths of 12 to 15 kilometers beneath the summit crater,” Phivolcs said.

Sulfur dioxide emission averaged 786 tons on Tuesday, higher than the 566 tons recorded in March.

“While monitoring parameters in the past months have been consistent with shallow hydrothermal activity driven by degassing of deeper magma, ongoing earthquake activity indicates that fracturing in deeper levels is occurring and may lead to further unrest,” Phivolcs said.

It said the alert level in Kanlaon may be raised to 2 if the uptrend in monitoring parameters persists. — Bella Cariaso