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WATCH: Philippine volcano Bulusan erupts, spews massive ash cloud
Mount Bulusan's eruption on Sunday prompted evacuations from ash-covered towns while authorities warned of further eruptions.
Residents are prohibited from entering the danger zone – a radius of approximately 4 kilometres around Mount Bulusan. Photo: Compilation of user-generated content embedded below.
A Philippine volcano – Mount Bulusan, the fourth most active volcano in the region – experienced a phreatic explosion on Sunday, 5 June shortly before 11am local time.
Philippine volcano erupts
The eruption lasted approximately 17 minutes. In addition, 77 earthquakes were recorded in the 24 hours leading up to the explosion, the alert level for Bulusan was raised from 0 to 1.
A massive ash cloud resulted in ashfall in several cities to the west, including Kasiguran, Irosin, and Juban. Residents were also evacuated from the Sorsogon province.
Watch: Mount Bulusan’s ash cloud
Meanwhile, researchers and scientists at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said another eruption is likely to follow.
“Ground deformation data from continuous GPS monitoring indicate the Bulusan edifice has been inflated since February 2021, while electronic tilt monitoring recorded a sudden but isolated inflation of the southeast lower slopes only since April 2022”.
This means volcanic processes are underway beneath the edifice and “are likely caused by shallow hydrothermal activity”.
Eruptions, ashfall and lahars
In addition, residents living within valleys and along river channels in the southeast, southwest and northwest regions are warned to remain vigilant.
Particularly against “sediment-laden stream flows and lahars in the event of heavy and prolonged rainfall should a phreatic eruption occur.
Lahars are a hot or cold mixture of water and rock fragments which flows down the slopes of a volcano, and a phreatic eruption occurs when magma heats ground or surface water.
Residents are also prohibited from entering the danger zone – a radius of approximately 4 kilometres around Mount Bulusan.
The Philippines in ‘Ring of Fire’
Pilots have been advised to avoid flying near Bulusan’s summit as ash from the eruption could be hazardous to aircraft.
The Manila airport authority said no flights have been affected by the eruption so far/
Philipines is located in the seismically active Ring of Fire in the Pacific, and Bulusan – the nation’s fourth most active volcano – erupted a dozen times between 2016 and 2017.
Tonga’s eruption broke world records
Meanwhile, Tonga’s most recent volcanic eruption in January was the biggest explosion ever recorded in modern history
New data suggests the natural disaster was far bigger than any previous volcanic events and even any atom bomb test after World War II.
It’s believed only the Krakatoa eruption of 1883 rivalled the Tonga volcano, the Indonesian explosion that claimed more than 30,000 lives.
ALSO READ: Why Tonga’s volcanic eruption was so violent, and what to expect next
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