Pyroclastic flow from the summit lava dome at Mayon tonight (image: jaime s. sincioco)

The effusive eruption at the volcano continues at heightened levels.

The actively growing lava dome in the inner summit crater continues to shed hot glowing rock falls by partial gravitational collapse of the dome. Such larger currents (four in particular) occurred at the volcano this evening between 18:09 and 20:00 local time by reaching a distance of approx. 3-4 km from the summit. Grey dense ash plumes separated from block-and-ash flows (so-called phoenix clouds) as they descended the southern Mi-si slope. The reason for these flows is the ongoing accumulation of viscous magma in the lava dome and its destabilization in the form of dome-block avalanches.

Two main lava flows arms on the southern Mi-si and southeastern Bonga ravine continue to be active, currently 2.3 km and 1.3 km long.

Near-constant emissions of steam-laden plumes (so-called degassing) rose 100 meters above the summit and drifted north and northeast. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions reached to a 595 tons on 28 May.

The short-term electronic tilt monitoring continues to detect the upper southeastern slopes inflated since February this year. However, the long-term ground deformation suggests the ongoing uplifting of the edifice, on the northwestern and southeastern slopes in particular, since 2020.

In order to mitigate the risk, people are forbidden to enter an area of 6 km distance from the summit crater due to impacts of rockfalls, pyroclastic falls and/or phreatic eruptions.

The alert level for the volcano remains at Level 3.

Source: Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology volcano activity update 30 June 2023