A possible impending eruption from the Mount Mayon volcano in the Philippines after a series of recent earthquakes and rockfalls.
More than 12,000 people have been evacuated from around the foot of the country’s most active volcano as the crater glows red.
“We are now raising the alert status of Mayon Volcano from alert level 2 to 3,” Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), told Reutes.
The volcano has erupted nearly 50 times over the last 600 years and last erupted in 2009. It measures 2,460 meters (8,070 feet). The worst eruption was in 1814, when more than 1,200 were killed when lava flows buried the town of Cagsawa.
Phivolcs said that there was “a noticeable escalation of unrest” observed at the mountain, prompting the agency to raise the alert level.
“Since 5:00 AM to 8:00 p.m. today, 39 rockfall events that are ascribed to incipient breaching of the growing summit lava dome across the southeastern crater rim, and 32 low frequency volcanic earthquakes that indicate magma intrusion and/or volcanic gas activity, have been detected,” Phivolcs said in a bulletin on Monday night.
