Phivolcs warns of Kanlaon’s magmatic eruption

MANILA, Philippines — State volcanologists have warned of a possible magmatic eruption of Kanlaon on Negros Island amid the volcano’s increased activity.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) yesterday said the last recorded magmatic eruption of Kanlaon was in 1902.

Mariton Basas, chief of Phiolc’s volcano monitoring and eruption prediction division, said that Kanlaon’s level of unrest in the past 24 hours has been unusually high.

“Yesterday, we logged 337 volcanic-tectonic earthquakes. From midnight until noon today, we recorded 65 VT quakes,” Basas said.

She said another elevated sulfur dioxide gas emission at 9,985 tons per day was recorded from the volcano in the past 24 hours.

It was the highest gas emission recorded since Phivolcs started its instrumental gas monitoring on Kanlaon.

“The figures we got from Kanlaon are anomalous amid the high monitoring parameters. There is a high chance of a magmatic eruption,” Basas said.

She said Phivolcs could not predict the exact day of the magmatic eruption as Kanlaon’s eruptions were mostly phreatic and steam-driven.

Before it erupted on June 3 this year, the volcano had been emitting increased concentrations of volcanic sulfur dioxide at an average of 1,273 tons per day.