Mayon volcano spews lava as evacuations pick up around Philippines island
Officials say hot, fast-moving flows of ash, hot gases and debris are rushing down volcanic slopes and predict a possible fall on the volcano's south side.
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More than 6,000 villagers forced to evacuate from near the Mayon volcano’s crater in northeastern Albay province.
June 12 (UPI) -- Thousands of people have been evacuated in the southeastern region of the Philippines' main island as the Mayon volcano started spews lava and sulfuric gas.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, of Phivolcs, named a nearly four-mile area around the volcano as a "danger zone," rocked by landslides and rockfalls.
Since officials raised the alert level to 3 last week nearly 13,000 people, including 88% of residents in the danger zone have been evacuated, the Philippine Provincial Information Office said.
Phivolcs said it has documented new lava activity from the Mount Mayon crater along with 21 weak volcanic earthquakes and 260 rockfalls in the Mayon Volcano Network. It said that hot, fast-moving flows of ash, hot gases and debris are rushing down volcanic slopes and predicted possible fall on the volcano's south side.
"Lava is being poured out from the vent," Phivolcs Director Teresito Bacolcol said. "It's slow-moving. It's what we call an effusive eruption. The magma shown here is low in gas content and it flows out of the volcano."
Philippines officials placed Albay province was placed under a state of calamity on Friday allowing the government to release response funds to support local residents in the area. Along with residents, authorities evacuated 10,000 farm animals, including cows, goats and pigs.
Evacuees wait near the entrance of a gym in an evacuation center at Guinabotan, Albay province, northeastern Philippines, Monday, June 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Residents board a military truck as they evacuate their village due to an eruption threat from nearby Mayon volcano, in Daraga on June 9, 2023. Philippine scientists said that a "hazardous eruption" of a volcano in the archipelago could be days or weeks away, and urged the evacuation of nearby residents from their homes. (Photo by Charism Sayat/AFP via Getty Images)
They were taken to feeding camps and shelters outside the danger zone.
In 2018, the last time the Mayon volcano erupted, thousands of villagers were displaced as they escaped the falling ash. The Philippines is part of the so-called "Ring of Fire" in the Pacific Ocean in which most earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.
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