[Síguenos ahora también en WhatsApp. Da clic aquí]

Philippine authorities began an emergency evacuation of 87 thousand people living in the surrounding area Kanlaon Volcanowhich flared up this Monday, throwing out dangerous clouds of hot ash.

“As the threat of an eruption of the Kanlaon volcano increases, an urgent evacuation operation is being carried out, affecting about 87 thousand residents of the surrounding areas,” the Asian country’s civil defense department said in a statement.

The government agency noted that the situation is “particularly serious” in La Castellane, a municipality located southwest of the volcano, “where an estimated 46,900 people are between four and six kilometers away from the danger zone.”

The Civil Defense said authorities were preparing for a “worst-case scenario” and had set up an evacuation center with a capacity of 30,000 people in Bacolod City.

The eruption of Kanlaon, located on the central island of Negros, occurred this Monday at 15:03 (7:03 GMT), reports the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

An explosive eruption occurred at the summit of Kanlaon Volcano today, December 9, 2024, at 15:03. The eruption formed a voluminous plume, which quickly rose to a height of 3000 meters above the vent and moved from west to southwest. Pyroclastic density flows or PDCs descended down the slopes… pic.twitter.com/EFNFDzRHEe

— PHIVOLCS-DOST (@phivolcs_dost) December 9, 2024

The agency’s cameras recorded a “voluminous cloud” of ash that quickly rose to 3,000 meters above the chimney and moved in a west-southwest direction.

The effects of the eruption were felt in several towns in the area, such as Bago, where falling ash forced masks to be distributed and evacuations sped up.

The volcanology agency also warned that its thermal imaging cameras had detected the release of pyroclastic flows – dangerous mixtures of gas and volcanic material that move at ground level and can be deadly due to the high temperatures and the speed at which they move.

Today’s explosion “means that a magmatic eruption has begun, which could develop into further explosive eruptions,” according to Phivolcs, who called on local authorities to evacuate within a six-kilometer radius of the volcano’s summit.

The agency also raised the volcano’s alert level to 3 out of five, meaning magma is near or at the surface and the activity could cause a dangerous eruption within weeks.

This Monday’s eruption comes amid increased activity in recent months from Kanlaon, which last September forced Philippine authorities to evacuate about three hundred people who had settled on the slope.

Over the past decade, the volcano has recorded 15 eruptions. In 1996, three climbers died as a result of a volcanic ash release. The Philippines is located on the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire”, which makes it an area of ​​strong seismic and volcanic activity.

EFE