Volcano ash blankets Philippine towns after second eruption this week

A volcano in the Philippines spewed a huge column of ash into the sky on Sunday, blanketing a region still recovering from last week's eruption.

The blast from Bulusan volcano lasted 18 minutes, the Philippine seismological agency said, impairing road visibility and forcing airlines to cancel flights.

On June 5, Mount Bulusan sent a grey plume shooting up at least one kilometre (0.6 miles) and covered 10 villages with ash.

Residents of Juban town in Sorsogon province, still reeling from last week's eruption, were woken up Sunday by the volcano's thundering.

"I thought it was just raining, but when I looked outside there was ash everywhere," resident Antonio Habitan told AFP. "Our river was once clear but now it is ash-coloured."

No casualties were reported, but the seismological agency raised the alert level to one on the five-level system, indicating "low-level unrest".

"We still can't say that it is over. It's still possible that this eruption could be followed by another one, that's why we need to be careful with the Bulusan volcano," agency head Renato Solidum told local radio station DZBB.

Emergency workers were deployed to clean ash-laden roads and guide drivers struggling to see oncoming vehicles.

Five flights in the area were cancelled.

Juban's local disaster office said 366 people were in emergency shelters, with most evacuated days before the eruption due to a series of volcanic earthquakes.

Bulusan volcano has been active in recent years, with a dozen similar eruptions recorded in 2016 and 2017.

The Philippines is located in the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire" and has over 20 active volcanoes.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Great timing, supercomputer upgrade lead to volcanic eruption forecast
Champaign IL (SPX) Jun 06, 2022
In the fall of 2017, geology professor Patricia Gregg and her team had just set up a new volcanic forecasting modeling program on the Blue Waters and iForge supercomputers. Simultaneously, another team was monitoring activity at the Sierra Negra volcano in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. One of the scientists on the Ecuador project, Dennis Geist of Colgate University, contacted Gregg, and what happened next was the fortuitous forecast of the June 2018 Sierra Negra eruption five months before it occurred ... read more