Mayon watch: An inside look at the Phivolcs headquarters

LEGAZPI CITY - GMANews.TV visited the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology headquarters in Albay province on Wednesday for a first-hand look at how government volcanologists are utilizing the scientific tools at their command to monitor the restive Mayon Volcano around the clock. The Phivolcs headquarters is situated on Ligñon Hill some 10 kilometers away from Mayon’s summit.

Three telemetric units installed on Mayon’s slopes transmit radio waves to Phivolcs’ seismographs, which measure the intensity of volcanic earthquakes and other movements inside the volcano. The data recorded are also stored digitally and are evaluated by Phivolcs’ teams working on alternate shifts for 24 hours.

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To measure the amount of sulfur dioxide emitted by the volcano, a volcanologist goes near the foothills - but not too close - and sets up a collecting device to estimate the sulfur dioxide emission rate. Telescopes and several cameras are also mounted on the viewing deck of the headquarters. The images captured by the cameras are recorded into Phivolcs’ database 24 hours a day. Areas in most danger Phivolcs supervising science research specialist Julio Sabit presented a diagram of areas likely to be affected by lahar and lava flows. These are Legazpi City, and Daraga and Sto. Domingo municipalities located at the foot of Mayon along its southeastern flank. ‘Mayon perfecting itself' Sabit says the volcano’s continuous lava flow for the past 17 days has "healed" Mayon's deep gullies – the “avenues" running down the slopes where the lava flows. “Tinatapalan ng nanigas na lava yung malalalim na uka ng bulkan. Ngayon, mas nagiging perfect na yung cone ng Mayon (The hardening lava is filling up the volcano's deep gullies. This is now making Mayon's cone more perfect)," he says, adding that the eruption in 1984 has created deep gullies from Mayon’s crater. - JV/HS, GMANews.TV