Increased volcanic earthquakes at Kanlaon Volcano may have triggered its numerous lengthy ash emissions on Monday and Tuesday, March 31 and April 1.
The earthquakes on Monday could have caused rocks to break within the volcano allowing magmatic gas to exit resulting in the ash emissions, Mari-Andylene Quintia, resident volcanologist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) based in La Carlota City, said on Tuesday.
A voluminous ash column as tall as 1,500 meters from Kanlaon’s crater at 3:24 p.m. Monday caused ashfall in six barangays in La Castellana, Bago City and La Carlota City, she said.
The ash emission started at 3:24 p.m. until 6:45 p.m. on Monday causing light ash fall in Brgy Sag-ang in La Castellana, Brgy Aa-al in La Carlota City and barangays Binubuhan, Ilijan, Ma-ao and Mailum in Bago City, Quintia said.
Sulfuric odor was also reported.
Kanlaon had 23 volcanic earthquakes and one volcanic tremor that lasted 7 minutes, from 12 a.m. Monday to 12 a.m. Tuesday, Phivolcs reported.
It also emitted 2,758 tons of sulfur dioxide on Monday, it added.
On Tuesday ash emissions at the summit crater of Kanlaon occurred from 5:57 a.m. to 06:14 a.m., 7:59 a.m. to 10:01 a.m., 10:28 a.m. to 10:41 a.m., 11:40 a.m. to 12:24 p.m., and 12:58 p.m. to 1:07 p.m., Quintia said.
These events on Tuesday generated grayish ash columns that rose 300 to 500 meters above the crater before drifting to the southwest but no ashfall-affected communities were reported, Quintia said.
It is possible that the ash fell on the volcano’s upper edifice, she said.
Kanlaon Volcano remains under Alert Level 3, which means it is under intensified magmatic unrest, Quintia said.*