Mayon Volcano Threatens Major Eruption in Philippines

Tens of thousands of people living within the danger zone of Mayon Volcano in the Philippines were forced to evacuate to emergency shelters in mid-December 2009 as tremors, incandescent lava at the summit, and minor ash falls suggested a major eruption was on the way. On the evening of December 14, the local volcano observatory raised the alert level to Level 3, which means “magma is close to the crater and hazardous explosive eruption is imminent.”

NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team.

This natural-color image of Mayon was captured on December 15, 2009, by the Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. A small plume of ash and/or steam is blowing west from the summit. Dark-colored lava flows from previous eruptions streak the flanks of the mountain.

Rebecca Lindsey
NASA's Earth Observatory

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/mayon-volcano.html