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Report on Mayon (Philippines) — December 1980


Mayon

Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, vol. 5, no. 12 (December 1980)
Managing Editor: David Squires.

Mayon (Philippines) Steam emission, crater glow, and seismicity

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1980. Report on Mayon (Philippines) (Squires, D., ed.). Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, 5:12. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.SEAN198012-273030



Mayon

Philippines

13.257°N, 123.685°E; summit elev. 2462 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


A moderate quantity of dirty white steam rose weakly to 200 m above the crater rim on 4 December at 1247, accompanied by short-duration harmonic tremor on the Mayon Resthouse Observatory seismograph. Faint crater glow was first noted at 2315 the same day. Additional steam emission was observed 12 and 14 December. Episodes of tremor and discrete earthquakes continued through December.

Geological Summary. Symmetrical Mayon, which rises above the Albay Gulf NW of Legazpi City, is the most active volcano of the Philippines. The steep upper slopes are capped by a small summit crater. Recorded eruptions since 1616 CE range from Strombolian to basaltic Plinian, with cyclical activity beginning with basaltic eruptions, followed by longer periods of andesitic lava flows. Eruptions occur predominately from the central conduit and have also produced lava flows that travel far down the flanks. Pyroclastic density currents and mudflows have commonly swept down many of the approximately 40 ravines that radiate from the summit and have often damaged populated lowland areas. A violent eruption in 1814 killed more than 1,200 people and devastated several towns.

Information Contacts: O. Peña, COMVOL, Quezon City.