Mayon still under alert Level 3 – Phivolcs

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — Four months after placing Mayon Volcano in Albay under alert Level 3, state seismologists are still not about to lower the volcano’s abnormal status as its eruption parameters remain high and above the threshold.

Paul Alanis, resident volcanologist at the Lignon Hill Observatory based in this city, yesterday said that as long as the numbers of Mayon’s pyroclastic density currents (PDCs), volcanic earthquakes, rockfall events and sulfur dioxide emissions remain above the normal values or baseline, the alert Level 3 status would stay.

“There is no way for us to lower the present alert Level 3 to 2 as long as these abnormal signs are yielding high values,” Alanis told The STAR.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) recorded 180 rockfall events, four volcanic earthquakes, a PDC and 690 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions in the past 24 hours.

The figures were lower compared to those recorded in previous days.

On Thursday and Friday, Phivolcs recorded 32 volcanic quakes, 231 rockfall events, 10 PDCs and 2,897 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions.

“These values showed that Mayon is still at a high level of unrest. There is no sustained indication yet that its condition is going back to normal,” Alanis said.