• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
While Alert Level 2 remains hoisted over Kanlaon Volcano, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the possibility that the alert status could be raised, should an explosive eruption recur in the next few days, or in effect become more frequent.
The March 15 moderately explosive eruption of Kanlaon Volcano was preceded by two similar eruptions on February 19 and 26, with ash emissions lasting almost four hours during its recent activity.
Ninety barangays in 11 local government units in Negros Occidental were either affected by ashfall or sulfuric odors. The most recent eruption also sparked a fire in woods and grasslands located within the volcano’s danger zone.
About 126,572 learners were affected by the disruption of classes following the moderately explosive eruption of Kanlaon Volcano on Negros Island on Sunday, according to the Department of Education.
DepEd disclosed a total of 258 public schools in Canlaon City in Negros Oriental, and in Himamaylan and San Carlos in Negros Occidental have shifted to flexible learning modalities.
In an advisory issued on March 18, PHIVOLCS said the March 15 eruption, which is the third within the span of a month, is a sustained increase in the frequency of explosive eruption at Kanlaon that could promote activity of intruding magma at a depth that could facilitate the onset of fully “magmatic eruption.”
Such an event could produce dangerous volcanic hazards within the Lava and PDC Hazard Zones of the volcano, disperse large volumes of airborne ash over the Central Visayas region and produce material that could feed major life-threatening lahars in channels draining the edifice, it warned.
PHIVOLCS has strongly recommended that communities within the four-kilometer permanent danger zone remain evacuated due to the chance of explosive eruptions.
Those within the six-kilometer radius should prepare for subsequent evacuation in case unrest escalates and Alert Level 3 is raised, PHIVOLCS further said.*
