MANILA ---
There are no imminent signs of unrest that might lead to the eruption of
Mount Apo, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology
(Phivolcs) said on Saturday (January 18), as the nation keeps watch on the
eruption and hazards posed by Taal Volcano in Luzon.
"Right
now, as we speak, no abnormal activity has been observed. We didn't see any
different volcanic activity," Phivolcs director Renato Solidum, Jr. said
in a text message to the Philippine News Agency.
Mount
Apo, an active stratovolcano in Mindanao, has no recorded eruption yet.
"(The)
eruption of Mount Apo will be all dependent on whether there are eruptible
magma detected," he said.
An
eruptible magma, he said, can be detected on Mount Apo's subsurface but
Phivolcs has yet to detect any.
Solidum,
however, said they have yet to determine whether there is magma inside the
volcano as no further studies were conducted on it.
As an
analogy, he said triggering a volcanic eruption is similar to shaking a bottle
of soda.
"Just
like a bottle of soft drinks -- if you shake it and there's (soda) inside,
bubbles will come out. If there's no liquid inside, then no bubbles would come
out no matter how many times you shake it," he said, noting that a volcano
would not erupt without magma.
A lot
of magma and gases have to be present to make a volcano erupt, he added.
Meanwhile,
Solidum also clarified that the strong earthquakes that hit Mindanao in 2019 would
not trigger Mount Apo's eruption.
The
Phivolcs chief noted that these strong earthquakes from October to December are
tectonic quakes generated by active faults in the area, and these are not
volcanic earthquakes brought by Mount Apo.
Tectonic
quakes are caused by fault movements, while volcanic earthquakes are caused by
movements or eruption of magma from the volcano, Solidum said.
"Tectonic
quakes are usually higher in magnitude, like the magnitude 6.9, and these are
typically from faults (movement)," he added. (MA. CRISTINA ARAYATA, PNA,
MINDANAO EXPOSE')
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