* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Mount Mayon

Blobrana · L

Mount Mayon, (13.2576°N, 123.6856°E), showed signs a major eruption was imminent as it belched smoke and spewed burning rocks and mud.
Six explosions have been recorded since Saturday.
The seismic network around the volcano in the central Philippines recorded mild outbursts at 5:14am, 5:18am, 12:11pm, 2:25pm, and 3:50pm, yesterday and 3:54am today.
A greyish cloud was briefly seen after the 3:50pm ash explosion, which quickly dissipated and drifted to the east-southeast of the volcano. The 3:50pm ash explosion was among the largest to date, based on instrumental records since the volcano began spewing ash last 07 August 2006.
The Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) emission produced a total of 6,876 tonnes (t/d) yesterday.
Alert Level 4 is still in effect, which means that a high probability of hazardous explosive eruption exists.

Source PHIVOLCS-DOST

Blobrana · L

Philippines' President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Saturday visited villagers forced to flee their homes due to restive Mayon volcano and ordered officials to speed up efforts to improve conditions at cramped evacuation centres.

Scientists told Arroyo in a briefing that Mayon, the Philippines' most active volcano, appears to be gearing up for an explosive eruption since it began quietly oozing lava four weeks ago.
Following successive ash explosions on Monday, officials ordered a mass evacuation of villages on the southern and southeastern slopes of the volcano, which are the most vulnerable to a violent eruption.
By late Saturday, more than 42,000 people were evacuated to schools, where villagers complained of overcrowding.
Arroyo told officials to immediately deliver prefabricated shelters and portable toilets to ease the congestion and assure sanitation.
Provincial Gov. Fernando Gonzalez said a major eruption could increase the number of evacuees by 20,000.
Renato Solidum, chief of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said with two more ash explosions Saturday, the number of such events had increased to 20 since Monday, when the agency declared alert Level 4 - the second highest of a five-step volcano warning system that suggests a "hazardous" eruption within days.
Clouds of extremely hot gas, ash and debris called pyroclastic flows that roll down the slopes of the volcano at high speed during an eruption might be contained within a six-kilometre zone from the crater. The "danger zone" has been extended up to eight kilometres on the mountain's south-eastern flanks.

"The volume (of lava) and the explosivity will be less than 1814" - Renato Solidum, referring to the year of the volcano's deadliest eruption when lava flowed up to 10 kilometres down the slope, burying an entire town and killing 1,200 people.

Source AP

Blobrana · L

Lava and rocks as big as cars rolled down Mt. Mayon yesterday, prompting officials to recommend that Albay be placed under a state of calamity and Malacañang to ask residents to leave immediately.

Scientists also expanded the danger zone around the volcano to 6 km around the peak and 7 km around its southeastern slope, fearing an imminent explosion.

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Blobrana · L

According to the Philippines' chief volcanologist, the Mayon volcano erupted on Friday, a day after ejecting ash amid swarms of earthquakes.

"It is a quiet eruption as of now. A hazardous eruption is possible. We don't know when, maybe within weeks" - Renato Solidum, chief of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, who ordered the alert level raised after observers saw "lava trickles" flowing down the slopes of the 8,118-foot volcano.

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Blobrana · L

A minor explosion at Mayon, southeastern Luzon, Philippines on 21 February at 09:41 local time (17:41 GMT) produced an ash plume that rose to ~500 m above the volcano's 2,462 metre high crater and drifted SW. Ash was deposited on the upper slopes of the volcano. The ash emission was accompanied by a small explosion-type earthquake, recorded only by seismographs around the volcano.

Position 13.257°N, 123.685°E