Mayon activity escalates, Alert Level 3 persists

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported this Friday that it had detected 48 volcanic earthquakes at Mayon Volcano in Albay in the past day.

Data from PHIVOLCS suggests that seismic activity at Mayon has continued to intensify in March with the total number of quakes experienced at the volcano in the first five days of the month already exceeding the overall tally from February.

The United States Geological Survey stated that an increase in the amount of volcanic earthquakes are one of the precursors to an impending eruption along with subtle swelling of the ground surface and fumarolic or steam activity among others.

Despite this, Mayon has retained Alert Level 3 under the PHIVOLCS’ monitoring criteria as it sees no sign of an eruption happening within the next couple of days but maintains its ban on entry into the volcano’s six-kilometer permanent danger zone.

In the 24-hour report released by the agency, it noted that it had observed occasional minor strombolian activity at Mayon with 333 rockfalls and four pyroclastic density currents.

PHIVOLCS also said that it had logged 1,139 tonnes of sulfur dioxide flux from the volcano with its strongest emission reaching one kilometer above its crater.