After minor eruption Negros Oriental’s Kanlaon volcano put on Alert Level 1

CEBU, Philippines – Negros Island’s Kanlaon Volcano has been placed on Alert Level 1 after Monday evening’s minor explosion, which according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology meant the volcano had entered a “period of unrest.”

The Phivolcs alert, issued yesterday, said the eight-minute steam explosion occurred around 9:55 p.m. although “the event was recorded by the Kanlaon Volcano seismic network as an explosion signal beginning at 9:30 p.m. and lasting 30 minutes.”

The explosion produced a white plume 1-1.5 kilometers high above the volcano’s summit then drifted southwest, while an “audible rumbling sound” was heard at sitios Mananawin and Upper Pantao in Barangay Pula of Canlaon City, Negros Oriental.

Phivolcs also said volcanic tremors were recorded over five hours, but only four volcanic earthquakes had been recorded during the past week, although there were no ash emissions at the time.

Yesterday morning, a “continuous emission of steam with minor ash from the summit crater” was observed, Phivolcs said

Phivolcs reminded local government units to strictly enforce the four-kilometer permanent danger zone around Kanlaon’s crater and also asked civil aviation authorities to advise pilots against flying close to the volcano’s summit due to the dangers posed by any sudden steam-driven, or phreatic, eruptions. — InterAksyon.com