Thursday, December 21, 2006
Bulusan volcano still has steam and ashes eruptions
Mt. Bulusan in Sorsogon has continued to show signs of restiveness as seismic instruments detected 21 high frequency volcanic earthquakes and at least seven low frequency, or magma-related, tremors in the past 24 hours, volcanologists said yesterday.
The sustained high level of unrest started with an ash-explosion at 1:09 a.m. on Wednesday, accompanied with rumblings and tremors that lasted 20 minutes.
Orlando Guardacasa, resident volcanologist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology at the Inlagadian Monitoring Station in Sorsogon City, said they are not discounting the possibility of more ash explosions due to the continuing tremors within the volcano.
“We are on close watch after that early Wednesday morning ash ejection. We are not yet discounting that more explosions might take place over Bulusan Volcano,” Guardacasa said.
He said they had already officially informed the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council of Sorsogon of Bulusan’s renewed abnormality.
Aside from ashfall, Guardacasa said they also alerted the council officials about possible lahar flows should heavy rains continue over Bulusan.
“We told them that they should also include in their disaster mitigation plan the possibility of lahar flow due to the continuing downpour over Bulusan. We already gave them the hazard map against lahar,” he added.
Guardacasa admitted that they were having a hard time in measuring the sulfur dioxide emissions of the Sorsogon volcano because thick clouds have been covering it over the past days.
Bulusan Volcano last exploded ash on Oct. 30 after its third level alert on April to May was lowered back to Level 1 which remained as its present alert status until yesterday.
The sustained high level of unrest started with an ash-explosion at 1:09 a.m. on Wednesday, accompanied with rumblings and tremors that lasted 20 minutes.
Orlando Guardacasa, resident volcanologist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology at the Inlagadian Monitoring Station in Sorsogon City, said they are not discounting the possibility of more ash explosions due to the continuing tremors within the volcano.
“We are on close watch after that early Wednesday morning ash ejection. We are not yet discounting that more explosions might take place over Bulusan Volcano,” Guardacasa said.
He said they had already officially informed the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council of Sorsogon of Bulusan’s renewed abnormality.
Aside from ashfall, Guardacasa said they also alerted the council officials about possible lahar flows should heavy rains continue over Bulusan.
“We told them that they should also include in their disaster mitigation plan the possibility of lahar flow due to the continuing downpour over Bulusan. We already gave them the hazard map against lahar,” he added.
Guardacasa admitted that they were having a hard time in measuring the sulfur dioxide emissions of the Sorsogon volcano because thick clouds have been covering it over the past days.
Bulusan Volcano last exploded ash on Oct. 30 after its third level alert on April to May was lowered back to Level 1 which remained as its present alert status until yesterday.
# posted by kevin : 8:59 PM
