LEGAZPI CITY—Mayon Volcano shot up a kilometer-high ash plume yesterday, prompting hundreds of nearby residents to evacuate in case it blows again.
Chief state volcanologist Renato Solidum said the alert level remained the same at Mayon, the country’s most active volcano, but that if magma continued to rise below the glowing crater, there could be another eruption within weeks.
In the town of Daraga on the southern slope of the mountain, Mayor Cicero Triunfante ordered the early evacuation of more than 300 residents in the village of Matnog on fears it might be in the path of superheated volcanic debris called pyroclastic flow.
Elsewhere, officials distributed wireless public address systems to more than 700 village and town officials to help them make emergency evacuation announcements if necessary, said provincial disaster officer Cedric Daep.
He said mass evacuations would be ordered once the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert to the next higher level. About 30,000 people were evacuated when Mayon last erupted in 2006.
Officials repeated warnings over radio stations early Wednesday against mountain climbing, gathering orchids, farming and other activities on the slopes of the 2,460-meter volcano, Daep said.
Resident volcanologist Ed Laguerta said ground measurements showed that the upper slopes of Mayon were slightly inflated, indicating the presence of rising magma, and that minor ash explosions were to be expected. Hourly measurements were being taken, he added.
Volcanologist Alex Baloloy added that they recorded 20 volcanic earthquakes in the last 24-hour period.
Two explosions early Wednesday sent ash and rocks a kilometer into the air. A thin layer of ash fell on the nearby towns of Camalig, Guinobatan and Ligao on Mayon’s southwestern foothills.
People in the area were advised to protect themselves from ash inhalation by breathing through a damp cloth or handkerchief.
The renewed activity from Mayon prompted Albay Gov. Joey Salceda to put emergency teams on 24-hour alert.
Mayon’s most violent eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people and buried a town in mud. A 1993 eruption killed 79 people.
Typhoon-triggered mudslides near the mountain in 2006 buried entire villages, killing more than 1,000 people.
The Philippines is in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common. Mar S. Arguelles and AP
