PHIVOLCS: Mt. Pinatubo activities may continue but major eruption unlikely

PHIVOLCS is not seeing an imminent major eruption of Mt. Pinatubo similar to what happened in the early Nineties amid Tuesday's phreatic eruption, according to its director, Renato Solidum, on Wednesday.

"Nung 1991 at 1992 may umakyat talagang magma na umabot sa ibabaw at nung 1991, isinabog ng masyadong malakas. Dito sa nangyayari, wala pang umaakyat na magma tayong naitatala sa kadahilanang ang mga lindol ay masyadong malalim pa mga 10 kilometers or below," Solidum told Dobol B TV.

(In 1991 and 1992, magma reached the crater that resulted in a huge explosion. There was none of that yesterday. The recorded earthquakes are 10 kilometer deep or lower.)

According to PHIVOLCS, the recent event was "likely driven by shallow hydrothermal processes beneath the edifice" as there has been "very low seismic activity in the volcano in the past days and low diffuse volcanic CO2 flux measured at Pinatubo Crater Lake, and high infrasound over seismic energy released by the eruption."

Solidum said historically, Mt. Pinatubo's massive eruptions happened every thousand years. However, the interval between the 1991 eruption and the eruption prior to that took only about 500 years due to an earthquake in Luzon.

"So kung titignan natin 'yung history, hindi natin inaasahan na magkakaron ng kahalintulad ng 1991 eruption kaagad-agad pero siyempre hindi natin pwedeng tanggalin ‘yung posibilidad na magkaroon ng mga maliliit na explosions kaya patuloy nating binabantayan ito nang mabuti," he said.

(So, if we look at its history, we don’t expect something similar to the 1991 eruption right away, but we still can’t rule out the possibility of small explosions. That’s why we continue to monitor it.)

Solidum clarified that Mt. Pinatubo is currently under Alert Level 0, emphasizing that there is no manifestation yet of abnormal activities. Trips to the volcano's crater, however, is still prohibited.

Under Alert Level 0 or normal level, PHIVOLCS said there is "no major eruption in the foreseeable future." —KBK, GMA News