Malditah Musings

Mayon Volcano

Scientists are predicting it would blow for two weeks now, however, so far all we saw was a few belches and a little spit running down the bottom of the mountain. Fountains of red-hot lava shooting up from the Mayon volcano intensifying as the Philippines awaited an imminent eruption. The government evacuating people for three weeks now depending on how they lived near the volcano.

The Philippine volcanology and Seismology Institute in considering ratcheting up the volcano to the highest alert level, which means that an eruption was underway, the Philippine News Agency (PNA) reported. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes. More than 9,000 families - a total of 44,394 people - is housed in evacuation camps. Officials said that not everyone is heeding their warning - the Some villagers were spotted checking into danger zone in their home and farm in the foothills of the volcano.

Some people just want to live on the edge.

And then some people just can not trust scientists.

The government is trying to implement a "no man land" fixed rules in danger zones, the military and police instructed to double the personnel manning the checkpoints and nine double their foot patrol operations within the restricted area, PNA reported. Mayon continued to show an extreme level of activity within the previous 24-hour observation period. Seismic activity remained elevated in the number and size as seismic network detected a total of 1266 volcanic earthquakes.

The volcano, located about 500 km (310 miles) south of the Philippine capital of Manila, has erupted 49 times since its first documented eruption in 1616.

The Philippines is situated in the so-called Ring of Fire, an arc of fault lines surrounding the Pacific Basin that could easily prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. most violent eruption of Mayon, in 1814, killed more than 1200 people and devastated several towns. The last major explosion was in 1993. Since then, it is still uneasy, emitting ash and lava spewing.

About the Author

As a spiritual-futurist, I have a BA degree majoring in history. One cannot know the future without knowing the past which holds clues to what is on the horizon. The world is in such a rapid expansion of knowledge that we are close to entering a tipping point that will forever change earth as we know it.