Amid good weather and clear skies, Mayon volcano put on a dazzling Christmas show of fire and thunder Thursday night to the delight of hundreds of local and foreign tourists camped at a nature's park in Legazpi City in Albay province. “It's Mayon at its best,” gushed Albay Governor Joey Salceda at the park, adding that the volcano's activities since Thursday night were the most beautiful sights he had ever seen as glowing lava and pyroclastic materials belched from the mouth of the volcano and flowed through its slopes. The restive Mayon emitted boulders as huge as “trucks” while flaming magma continues to cascade from its crater down the slopes showing an “intense level of activity” during the past 24 hours, government volcanologists said Friday. Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) Director Renato Solidum Jr. said an interval of silence indicates that the volcano is gathering force from underneath ready for a forceful explosion in due time. He said that what looked like rocks ejected from the volcano's crater and visible from one-to-two-kilometer distance were boulders the size of trucks. In its update Friday, Phivolcs said red hot lava continued to flow down from Mayon's crater, during the volcano's momentary silence. The Phivolcs chief said the volcano may be acting like in 1984 when a one-week silence after a three-week restiveness set in before the big bangs. “It is now in its Strombolian phase where seismic activity is elevated in size and the ash explosion reaches up to two kilometers high,” Solidum said. Phivolcs detected 815 volcanic earthquakes at “maximum deflection” and recorded tremors and rumblings within the seven-kilometer danger zone. Some 21 ash explosions were recorded under clear skies where there was good visibility and 124 booming and rumbling sounds were heard intermittently for the past 24 hours. Phivolcs said the volcano emitted 5, 737 tons of suphur per day, according to the Phivolcs Friday. Mayon Friday remained under alert level 4. Alert level 5, the highest level, will be raised when its restiveness becomes intense, Solidum said. Jimmy Sincioco, officer-in-charge of Phivolcs Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division, said there could be two possible scenarios. “It could either be similar to what happened in Mayon in 2006 or a hazardous eruption may still occur (as it did in 1984),” Sincioco said. Cars carrying tourists lined up at the foot of Lingnon Hill, taking turns to enter the view deck to watch the volcano spectacle. Only 10 cars can enter the narrow space of the hill at a given time.
