"Mayon emitted what looks like a mushroom cloud. I immediately called Rene Solidum but he has yet to verify with Ed Laguerta since there were no prior major movements in key indicators (EQs, etc). The mushroom can still be seen."
- Albay Governor Joey Sarte Salceda (His first Facebook post regarding the incident at exactly 8:12am)
Without any prior warning, Mt. Mayon, an active volcano located in the Albay province in the Philippines, violently spewed out ash and steam which resulted to the death and injury of tourists and tour guides who were trekking the said volcano and were caught off guard when the incident happened.
"A phreatic eruption, also called a phreatic explosion or ultravulcanian eruption, occurs when magma heats ground or surface water. The extreme temperature of the magma (anywhere from 500 to 1,170 °C or 932 to 2,138 °F) causes near-instantaneous evaporation to steam, resulting in an explosion of steam, water, ash, rock, and volcanic bombs."
Videos
When I looked out the window and saw the mushroom cloud, I quickly grabbed my camcorder and ran up to the terrace to shoot video of the explosion. Since I previously used the camcorder indoors, I forgot to change back the settings (I manually adjust my camcorder's settings) thus resulting the video to be 'bluish'
This particular video was featured on WesternPacificWeather, a weather-monitoring site with links to NHK WORLD.
This particular video was featured on WesternPacificWeather, a weather-monitoring site with links to NHK WORLD.
Even though the government has told us there won't be any more explosions as there is no increasing volcanic activity, I continued to observe the volcano and took video of it. Below is a video I took at around noon where I zoomed in on the crater which appears to be still letting off steam.
Photos
My camcorder has a shutter button which allows me to take photos as well, even when it's recording video. Most of these are actually video stills. (From my other video recordings where I already corrected the camcorder's settings)
Government Reports
click to enlarge