LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — After simmering down for a week, Bulusan Volcano’s seismic events escalated again in the past 24 hours, generating over a hundred earthquakes, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported yesterday.
A total of 105 earthquakes were recorded around the volcano yesterday. The figure was much higher than Saturday’s eight and Friday’s three temblors.
Bulusan’s surface and upper slopes remain inflated or bulging, indicating that shallow hydrothermal processes are occurring beneath the edifice, Phivolcs said.
State volcanologists monitoring Bulusan for 24 hours noted a sudden change in the volcano‘s seismic activity, according to April Dominguiano, Phivolcs resident volcanologist at the Cabid-An monitoring station in Sorsogon City,
“Although this number (105) remains under alert Level 1 status, we need to closely observe whether this seismicity would go up or down,” Dominguiano told The STAR.
Communities surrounding Bulusan were advised not to enter within the volcano’s four-kilometer-radius permanent danger zone.
“Vigilance within the two-kilometer extended danger zone on the southeast sector must also be observed due to increased possibilities of sudden and hazardous phreatic eruptions,” Phivolcs said.
Bulusan’s alert level was raised to 1 or abnormal after it shook over 150 times on May 12.