Expert says clogged Philippine volcano could burst

LEGASPI, Philippines: Rumbling Mayon volcano in the Philippines is showing signs of becoming clogged with lava and could erupt explosively, a government volcanologist said Saturday.

The volcano, which has been oozing lava for weeks, is also emitting gas and ash, all signs of a powerful eruption any day now, said Ed Laguerta, head of the government’s volcanology team monitoring Mayon.

“Mayon volcano is still in a high state of unrest and in the coming days it could still have an explosive eruption,” he warned in a radio interview.

“The number of (volcanic) quakes have lessened but now the quakes are of a different variety. What is becoming clear is that it (the volcano) is getting clogged. That is when the lava is rising but cannot get out,” he said.

“The edifice looks inflated so we cannot say that the actual activity of Mayon has decreased,” he said.

“Just because the volcano looks calm… it does not mean its activity is decreasing. We cannot be off our guard. After this calm period, it could explode with even more force,” Laguerta added.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said it had kept Mayon on alert level four, meaning a hazardous eruption may occur within days.

It warned people to stay away from river channels and other areas that might possibly be hit by volcanic mudflow in the event heavy rain falls on Mayon.

The government has evacuated more than 47,000 people living around the volcano, about 330 kilometres (200 miles) southeast of Manila, since it began belching smoke and oozing lava earlier this month.

The evacuees are housed in 28 makeshift centres – mostly government schools – and could remain there for more than a month until the volcano settles, said Jukes Nunez, director of the disaster preparations office.

There are still a few people who refuse to leave the danger zone but Nunez said they were at the fringes of the zone and were not directly threatened.

However, he warned that the evacuees would need to find new shelters when schools reopen in January after the Christmas holidays.

Governor Joey Salceda, whose province includes Mayon, said in a television interview that he plans to set up a tent city for those who evacuated the area around the volcano.

The 2,460-metre (8,070-foot) volcano, which is famed for its near-perfect cone, has erupted 48 times in recorded history. In 1814, more than 1,200 people were killed as lava buried the town of Cagsawa.

- AFP/yb

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1027074/1/.html

Eastern Congo volcanoes show eruption warning signs

KINSHASA, March 30 (Reuters) – Two volcanoes may erupt in heavily populated eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where years of fighting have already forced 1 million people from their homes, scientists and aid agencies said.

Scientists in Goma, capital of the border province of North Kivu, have in recent weeks registered high levels of seismic activity, considered an early warning sign of an impending eruption, around the Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira volcanoes.

“There is heavy activity around Nyiragongo, but it’s more centred on Nyamulagira, around 13 km (8 miles) away,” Dieudonne Wafula, lead scientist at the Volcanological Observatory of Goma, told Reuters on Monday.

Nyiragongo, which lies just outside Goma, erupted in 2002, sending a river of lava through the city, destroying thousands of homes and killing dozens of people.

“Red Cross volunteers are on alert to help the population, which still has memories of the (2002) eruption … which displaced around 400,000 people,” Zebe Kitabingo, head of the local chapter of the Congolese Red Cross, said in a statement.

Eastern Congo is still struggling to end more than a decade of lingering fighting between government soldiers, local Mai Mai militias, and rebels that has rumbled on despite the official end of a 1998-2003 war.

The conflict and the humanitarian catastrophe it sparked have killed about 5.4 million people over the past decade.

The fighting has displaced around 1 million people in North Kivu since late 2006, and tens of thousands of internal refugees have flocked to the relative security of camps on the outskirts of Goma, a city home to more than 600,000 people.

Despite the city’s close proximity to the two volcanoes, Wafula said Goma itself did not appear to be at risk, as the level of lava in the Nyiragongo crater is relatively low.

“It’s less worrying. The higher the lava level, the higher the probability of a serious eruption. The risk is greater for the villages west of the Nyamulagira volcano,” he said.

Aside from the immediate threat of lava flows, Wafula warned against the dangers of airborne ash, which can contaminate drinking water, poison livestock, and disrupt air traffic.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUKLU424228._CH_.2420