The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) elevated the alert level over Mayon Volcano in Albay province to Alert Level 2 after seeing “a sustained seismic development of its lava dome,”.
Phivolcs said in a bulletin that as of Oct. 4, the lava dome’s volume has expanded by around 48,000 cubic meters since Aug. 20.
“Ocular inspection of the summit during an aerial survey this morning confirmed the presence of freshly extruded lava at the base of the summit lava dome,” added the report.
No volcanic earthquakes were reported in the last 24 hours by Phivolcs, but the public is still strongly warned to stay away from the six-kilometer permanent risk zone owing to the potential for a phreatic or dangerous magmatic eruption.
“This means that there is current unrest driven by shallow magmatic processes that could eventually lead to phreatic eruptions or even precede hazardous magmatic eruptions,” added Phivolcs.
