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Thousands evacuated as Philippine volcano spews ash, rocks
June 11, 2023
MANILA: Thousands of people living near a Philippine volcano have taken shelter in evacuation centres as officials warned on Sunday (Jun 11) of health risks from ash and toxic gases spewing from the rumbling crater.
Seismology researchers said they had recorded at least one volcanic earthquake in the past 24 hours and red-hot rocks were falling from Mount Mayon in the central province of Albay.
More than 12,800 people have been moved to evacuation centres, the Philippine civil defence office said, most from farming villages at or near the foot of the volcano.
"There is a concomitant health risk while being close to the eruption because of inhaling sulphur dioxide gas or the particulate matter of ashfalls," Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa told a press briefing on Sunday.
Mount Mayon, about 330km southeast of the capital Manila, is considered one of the most volatile of the country's 24 active volcanoes.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said rocks were falling from a disintegrating lava dome being pushed out of the crater by molten material below the earth.
The rocks were raining down on areas up to two kilometres away and sulphur dioxide emissions had tripled on Saturday, state volcanologists said.
A five-step alert system for the volcano was raised from two to three on Thursday, with authorities warning of possible respiratory illnesses from inhaling fumes.
"With Albay in a state of calamity due to Mayon's activity, we remind people to follow the recommendations and evacuation instructions of your local governments," Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said Saturday.
Earthquakes and volcanic activity are common in the Philippines due to its position on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
Five years ago, Mayon displaced tens of thousands of people after spewing millions of tonnes of ash, rocks and lava.
The country's most powerful eruption in recent decades was Mount Pinatubo in 1991 that killed more than 800 people.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/philippines-volcano-mount-mayon-evacuation-shelter-toxic-gas-ash-3554256
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
June 11, 2023
The Sun and Its Missing Colors
Here are all the visible colors of the Sun, produced by passing the Sun's light through a prism-like device. The spectrum was created at the McMath-Pierce Solar Observatory and shows, first off, that although our white-appearing Sun emits light of nearly every color, it appears brightest in yellow-green light. The dark patches in the featured spectrum arise from gas at or above the Sun's surface absorbing sunlight emitted below. Since different types of gas absorb different colors of light, it is possible to determine what gasses compose the Sun. Helium, for example, was first discovered in 1868 on a solar spectrum and only later found here on Earth. Today, the majority of spectral absorption lines have been identified - but not all.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
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