09 September 2006
LEGAZPI CITY—Volcanologists yesterday said they are studying the possibility of lowering the alert level status of Mayon Volcano from 4 to 3 as the the deflation of ground swelling and absence of explosions over the past days may indicate a slowdown in volcanic activity.
“We are confident we would be able to provide a report to the public on the results of the study we are conducting within 15 days,” said Julio Sabit, supervising science research specialist from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs)-Manila.
Phivolcs is studying if the downtrend in volcanic activity would be consistent in the succeeding days, he said.
Aside from the measurable parameters such as the sulfur dioxide emission rate, number of volcanic tremors and earthquakes, and the measurement of ground deformation, volcanologists are also studying visual observations of the volcano and their variations over a period of time.
Since alert level 4 was raised over Mayon for the past 33 days, at least 30,000 villagers had been evacuated from five municipalities and three cities in Albay. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon
No comments:
Post a Comment