The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised on Wednesday the alert status of Kanlaon Volcano from Alert Level 0 to Alert Level 1 after an increase in seismic activity was observed in the past days.
In the latest update of Phivolcs issued Wednesday morning, the agency said that Alert Level 1 status now prevails over Kanlaon, meaning that the volcano is at an “abnormal condition” and has “entered a period of unrest.”
State volcanologists observed a rise in the seismic activity of Kanlaon since March 9 when the volcano’s seismic monitoring network recorded a total of 80 volcanic earthquakes dominated by 77 low-frequency events associated with “magmatic fluids beneath the edifice.”
According to Phivolcs, the increased volcanic tremors in Kanlaon could be followed by steam-driven or phreatic eruptions at the summit crater, despite the absence of visible degassing or steaming from the active vent this year.
“Ground deformation data from continuous GPS measurements indicate a period of long-term slow inflation of the edifice since 2017, while short-term electronic tilt monitoring on the southeastern flanks recorded slow inflation of the lower slopes since May 2019 and pronounced inflation of the upper slopes in the end of January 2020,” the agency explained in its advisory. (Alexandria San Juan)