{"id":48368,"date":"2015-05-07T12:53:26","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T04:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=48368"},"modified":"2015-05-07T12:53:26","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T04:53:26","slug":"bulusans-eruptions-can-intensify-phivolcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/05\/07\/bulusans-eruptions-can-intensify-phivolcs\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulusan’s eruptions can intensify — Phivolcs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Bulusan (Wikipedia photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — A Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) expert isn’t discounting the possibility Bulusan Volcano’s on-going eruptions can worsen.<\/p>\n

“It’s possible for eruptions there to be more intense,” Phivolcs volcanologist Paul Alanis said, noting communities concerned must be on guard for this scenario.<\/p>\n

Citing historical data, he noted eruptions in Bulusan usually start as minor explosions such as what Phivolcs already observed there.<\/p>\n

The eruptions can eventually intensify over time, he warned.<\/p>\n

Bulusan Volcano lies in Sorsogon province and is about 250 kilometers southeast of Manila.<\/p>\n

On Thursday (May 7), Phivolcs raised Bulusan’s alert level status from zero to one as monitoring of this agency showed “abnormal” conditions there.<\/p>\n

“This indicates hydrothermal processes may be underway beneath the volcano that may lead to more steam-driven eruptions,” Phivolcs said in its 8 a.m. Bulusan Volcano bulletin released Thursday.<\/p>\n

Bulusan’s volcanic hazards are pyroclastic flows, lava flows, lahar and ashfall, noted Phivolcs.<\/p>\n

Government already set a permanent danger zone (PDZ) covering a radius of four kilometers from Bulusan’s summit to help protect people from such hazards.<\/p>\n

For further protection, government also designated a probable danger zone spanning four kilometers to 10 kilometers from Bulusan’s summit.<\/p>\n

Phivolcs reminded the public to avoid entering Bulusan’s PDZ, warning this volcano can manifest “sudden and hazardous steam-driven or phreatic eruptions.”<\/p>\n

Phreatic eruptions are steam-driven explosions that occur when water beneath the ground or on the surface is heated by magma, lava, hot rocks or new volcanic deposits.<\/p>\n

Data show Bulusan had phreatic eruptions between 1918 and 1922 as well as in 1980.<\/p>\n

“People living within valleys and along river\/stream channels should be vigilant against sediment-laden stream flows and lahar in the event of heavy and prolonged rainfall,” Phivolcs continued in its bulletin.<\/p>\n

Pilots must refrain from flying their planes close to Bulusan’s summit since ash from sudden phreatic eruptions can be hazardous to these aircraft, Phivolcs said further.<\/p>\n

According to Phivolcs, steam-driven explosions that occurred in Bulusan on May 1 and 6 are typical to that volcano during its restive period when either the hydrothermal system there is disturbed or steamaccumulates and pressurizes at the mountain’s shallow levels.<\/p>\n

“Based on past records, more explosions can be expected to occur with varying intensity, duration and distribution of ash,” said Phivolcs.<\/p>\n

The May 6 explosion propelled an ash plume approximately 250 meters high, Phivolcs noted.<\/p>\n

“That plume is still low compared to the kilometer-high column of ash Mt. Pinatubo spewed when it erupted in 1992, however,” said Alanis.<\/p>\n

Phivolcs lists Bulusan as among the country’s active volcanoes.<\/p>\n

Active volcanoes are those that erupted within historical times which cover the last 600 years, noted Phivolcs.<\/p>\n

According to Phivolcs, Bulusan had 16 to 17 historical eruptions already with the last one occurring from Nov. 6, 2010 to May 13, 2011.<\/p>\n

“That last one was explosive,” said Alanis.<\/p>\n

He noted historical data show Bulusan’s eruptions are usually explosive.<\/p>\n

Explosive eruptions occur when volatile magma and volcanic gases are discharged from a volcano, said experts.<\/p>\n

They noted lava pours from vents onto the ground during effusive eruptions which are gentler than volcanoes’ explosive blasts.<\/p>\n

Phivolcs assured continuing to monitor Bulusan so this agency can relay to the public latest information on activities in this volcano.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — A Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) expert isn’t discounting the possibility Bulusan Volcano’s on-going eruptions can …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":48369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","mauthors-catherine-j-teves","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}