Mayon Volcano Threatens Major Eruption

By Nancy Atkinson - December 30, 2009 at 3:08 PM UTC | Planetary Science
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[/caption] Mayon Volcano, on the Philippine island of Luzon, has been exhibiting activity suggesting a major eruption is imminent. Described as an "intense level of unrest" by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Mayon exhibited 7 ash explosions, dozens of earthquakes related to the movement of magma beneath the volcano, over 100 rock falls from the summit, and 3 active lava flows. The Philippine government is enforcing evacuations in a danger zone extending 7 kilometers (4 miles) north and 8 kilometers (5 miles) south of the summit. Tens of thousands of people living within the danger zone (up to 8 kilometers away) of Mayon Volcano in the Philippines were forced to evacuate to emergency shelters in mid-December 2009.

The satellite image above shows Mayon emitting a thin volcanic plume on Dec. 28. Ash obscures the summit crater and clouds hide lava flows on the volcano's flanks. The natural-color image was acquired by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the NASA Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.

Below, the image from Dec. 15 shows how close a major populated area is to the volcano. [caption id="attachment_49013" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Mayon Volcano on Dec. 15, 2009. "]

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The volcano has been noticeably active for several weeks, and officials say "magma is close to the crater and hazardous explosive eruption is imminent."

Source:

NASA Earth Observatory

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com