Philippine volcano could erupt again, villagers warned
An erupting central Philippine volcano could shoot ground-hugging columns of ash and rock again today, authorities warned, as villagers returned to check their mountainside homes.
After erupting in fountains of bright red lava and rocking the area with explosions, the Mayon volcano calmed temporarily and many of the 35,000 villagers who evacuated overnight returned home, civil defence authorities said.
But scientists warned of more pyroclastic flows - clouds of low-lying ash, gas and rock fragments that can move at 60 miles an hour - and possible explosive eruptions.
Jason Aragon, officer in charge of the evacuation of 18 area villages, said thousands of evacuees returned to their homes despite the warnings. Officials encouraged them to return to emergency shelters in the nearby city of Legazpi.
The 11 evacuation centers in five towns and three cities were reporting shortages of food and water.
Area airports were closed today due to lack of visibility and danger of flying ash and rocks. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was to visit the area in the afternoon, flying into an airport outside the danger zone then travelling by car.
One massive explosion from the Mayon volcano on Sunday puffed ash more than nine miles high, with continuous columns of 600 yards and more, officials said. Visibility dropped to near zero within hours as the enormous mushroom cloud began to settle, turning the lush green landscape grey. Explosions were audible more than eight miles away.
Raymundo Punongbayan, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said Monday the eruption could last one to two weeks and spew up to 250 million cubic feet of lava. As many as 60,000 people could be forced to evacuate, he said.
With the threat of rain remaining in the wake of a tropical storm, concerns rose over the possibility of mudflows, called lahar, like those that buried a town and killed 1,200 people in the volcano’s worst known eruption in 1814.
The south east portion of the crater showed visible signs of weakening and may give way in days, loosing lava down the slope of the volcano, scientists said.
Eduardo Laguerta, resident vulcanologist, said a lava dome about 27 to 30 yards wide had formed on the crater.
The 8,118-foot Mayon, a well-known tourist attraction because of its near-perfect conical shape, began acting up in January, but had been at alert level three out of a possible five for weeks. After a brief 160ft fountain of lava emerged on Saturday, authorities raised the alert to four then quickly put it at five by early afternoon, meaning an eruption was in progress.
A 3.7-mile area around Mayon is permanently off limits but many residents ventured into the zone during the day to farm the rich soil. That was extended to 4.4 miles yesterday.
Mayon, 200 miles south east of Manila, towers over farming communities in the Bicol region. At least 47 eruptions have been recorded since 1616. The last, in February 2000, forced some 68,000 people from their homes, while one in 1993 killed more than 70 villagers.
The Philippines is in the Pacific ‘‘Ring of Fire’’, characterised by frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.
