NEWSFLASH

DORMANT VOLCANO NEAR MAYON ACTING UP?

Legazpi City, March 14, 2000 A dormant volcano in Manito town, Albay, is reportedly waking up from 4,000 years of slumber.

Government vulcanologists are investigating reports that a volcano in the Pocdol mountain range ejected mud 40 feet into the air before Mayon Volcano's major eruption last month.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) was asked by city residents to investigate what they described as "a glowing phenomenon" sighted on Cayaban Peak in the Pocdol mountain range.

Residents of Barangay Buragwis, an elevated area across Albay Gulf, reported seeing the "glowing phenomenon" in Pocdol mountain range after a recent earthquake and while Mayon volcano was erupting.

People in a barangay below the Cayabon Peak said the smell of sulfur became intense in the area after the earthquake, and that the waters in Albay Gulf boiled.

Vulcanologist Ed Laguerta confirmed that Pocdol mountain range is comprised of dormant volcanoes that had erupted several times in the distant past, and that this information is based on the range's geologic past.

Cayabon Peak, where witnesses saw the strange glow, was a crater when the mountain ranges were active volcanoes a thousand years ago, he added.

However, Laguerta said vulcanologists still have to verify reports from residents that the mountain range had come to life and that the volcanoes on Pocdol have become active again.