Mayon evacuees decamped soon
Volcanic activities had a monthly average of 11 events daily in November to nearly none per day in the first week of December 2023.
Daily TribuneVolcanic activities had a monthly average of 11 events daily in November to nearly none per day in the first week of December 2023.
The Office of Civil has initiated measures to decamp or send home the 52 families or 195 individuals that had been displaced by Mayon Volcano's activities in the past few months.
This was after the OCD lowered the alert of its emergency operations team in Bicol to Blue from Red amid a similar lowering of the alert level from 3 to 2 by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
The families had been staying at an evacuation center in Camalig, Albay.
OCD spokesperson Edgar Posadas said the downgrading of their alert level to Blue means half of the agency's manpower shall be on standby for heightened monitoring.
The OCD previously utilized "Red," the highest alert level in monitoring the unrest of Mayon Volcano.
Posadas stressed they would still monitor any developments on Mayon and its potential impact on residents despite the lowering of alert status.
"Rest assured, OCD would also relay all pertinent information to its media partners and continue to provide all the assistance that local government units in the Bicol region would need during this time until the Mayon Volcano's activities finally cool down," he added.
Phivolcs lowered its alert on account of declining volcanic activities, including a decrease in volcanic earthquakes, magma extrusion, degassing and rock-fracturing.
Volcanic activities had a monthly average of 11 events daily in November to nearly none per day in the first week of December 2023.
It also noted that the rockfall and pyroclastic density currents, or PDCs, significantly decreased from monthly averages of 122 to 87 events per day and 5 to 2 events each day, respectively, between October and November 2023 to virtually zero even in the first week of December 2023.
The decreases indicate that the magma supply to the summit crater has significantly diminished, resulting in the cessation of lava effusion from the crater and lava collapse-driven rockfall and PDC activity, it added.
Likewise, the agency logged a lessening incandescence of the summit crater and a reduction of the 2023 lava flow deposits since the last week of November.
Phivolcs said the advancing front of overlapping lava flows on the Mi-isi, Bonga, and Basud Gullies have been stalled at 2.8 kilometers, 3.4 and 1.1 km., respectively, from the summit crater from July to August.
Of these, the newest lava deposit was observed to have rested within 400 meters of the crater on the Bonga Gully on 23 November, with the total volume remaining at approximately 49 million m3 since then.
"The stabilization and diminishing incandescence of lava deposits at the summit and depositional gullies are consistent with the cessation of magma supply to the summit crater," Phivolcs said.
Overall, the pressurization of the Mayon edifice has abated in the past month, but it remains generally inflated due to magma intrusion that has been transpiring since the onset of unrest in June 2023.
To recall, the Mayon Volcano's alert status was raised to Level 2 on 5 June when Phivolcs observed an increase in rockfall activities from the summit lava dome.
It was further raised to Level 3 on 8 June after Mayon exhibited parameters of "hazardous eruption" activities for months, including effusive magmatic eruption.
The scenario forced the evacuation of thousands of Albay residents living within the six-kilometer permanent danger zone.