FLASH UPDATE #1 – MAYON VOLCANIC ACTIVITY
Country under monitoring: Philippines
OVERVIEW: According to the Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), Alert Level 3 (Increased Tendency Towards Hazardous Eruption) was raised for Mayon Volcano on 8 June 2023. A relatively high level of unrest is observed as magma is at the crater and hazardous eruption within weeks or even days is possible according to the Philippine Institute for Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS).
RELATED INCIDENTS: from 5 June, a series of volcanic earthquakes and rockfall events have been recorded and observed. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, a gas that can be threatening to human, animal, and plant life, averaged at 826 tonnes/day on 15 June 2023.
AFFECTED POPULATION:
- 628 injured (628 of which are still for validation)
- 10,146 families (38,961 persons) affected from 26 barangays in 8 cities/municipalities from one (1) province and one (1) region.
- 20,127 internally displaced persons (18,892 of which are served in 28 evacuation centres)
PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE:
- A total of 18 cities/municipalities were declared under a State of Calamity.
- 908 livestock were preemptively evacuated.
- 1.3M USD worth of assistance has been provided in the form of cash assistance, drinking water, family food packs, family kits, family tents, hot meals, tarpaulins, water containers, etc.
- 59.1M USD worth of standby funds and prepositioned relief stockpile from DSWD and OCD are still available.
OUTLOOK: Low-rate effusive eruption of degassed lava has been transpiring for the past week accompanied by SO2 emissions and seismic and ground deformation parameters. According to PHIVOLCS, this state of unrest is largely similar to Mayon’s 2014 eruption and may persist for a few months. The volcano’s condition, however, may change any time and may progress into the three (3) possible scenarios: a) slow and sustained lava extrusion, b) lava fountaining and lava flow with occasional explosions and pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) within the 6-kilometer Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ), and c) explosive eruption with high-intensity lava fountaining, long lava flows, and PDCs on all sectors that could exceed the 6-km PDZ (Alert Level 5 will be raised).
The AHA Centre will continue to monitor for further developments and issue necessary updates.
DATA SOURCES
ASEAN Disaster Monitoring & Response System (DMRS);
Philippines: NDRRMC, PHIVOLCS, DSWD;
Verified news media agencies.
