Alert level 3 continues to be hoisted over the Visayan volcano.
At 5:51 am on Tuesday, April 8, a moderately explosive eruption occurred at the summit crater of Mt. Kanlaon in Negros island.
According to the seismic recordings of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), the eruption lasted 56 minutes, with the gray voluminous plume having rose to a height of 4 kilometers above the vent, before bending and drifting west and southwest.
Pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) have also descended the southern slopes within a kilometer of the crater, in the jurisdiction of La Castellana, based on visual and thermal camera monitoring by the state volcanology bureau.
Multiple villages in La Castellana, Negros Occidental and Canlaon, Negros Oriental have heard audible rumbling signs, while large ballistic fragments have also been spewed, causing the burning of vegetation near the summit.
PHIVOLCS also reported that there have been thin ashfall several localities of Negros Occidental, such as La Carlota City, Bago City, and La Castellana, with sulfurous fumes experienced as far as Hinigaran.
In the pre-eruption monitoring data recorded by PHIVOLCS, the event was preceded by short-term inflation or swelling of the southeastern edifice that began in January 2025, followed by a decline in average sulfur dioxide emission — from 4,014 tonnes/day since June 2024 to 2,453 tonnes/day since March 2025.
SO2 emission yesterday, April 7, it revealed averaged only 1,655 tonnes/day.
Meanwhile, there was no significant change in the average occurrence of volcanic earthquakes of 14 events/day since June 2024.
These parameters, PHIVOLCS noted, “indicate that the blockage of volcanic gas emission (or closed-system degassing) and resulting pressurization and swelling of the edifice drive moderately explosive eruption at Kanlaon.”
“No pronounced increases in volcanic earthquake, ground deformation or volcanic gas parameters have followed the eruption,” as of the 2:00 pm bulletin shared by the agency.
Alert Level 3 remains hoisted over Kanlaon Volcano, which means that the moderate eruption may be followed by similar short-lived explosive eruptions in the short term, or might even progress to lava eruptions that generate lava flows and lava fountaining activity, according to PHIVOLCS.
As such, the evacuation of communities within the 6-km radius of Mt. Kanlaon should evacuate, the bureau recommended, as there is still heightened risk of potential PDCs, ballistic projectiles, rockfalls, and ashfall, among other threats.
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