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Eruption heats up
work for UH grad
studying volcanoes
in Philippines
Ronnie Torres' professor says
By Helen Altonn
he and fellow scientists were
expecting the action
at Mayon
Star-BulletinA University of Hawaii volcanology student is studying the Mayon volcano in the Philippines, which forced 30,000 people to flee their homes when it erupted yesterday.
Ronnie Torres, a graduate student of UH volcanologist Stephen Self, is doing his studies while also working as an employee of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
Torres has been studying the volcanoes of Pinatubo, Taal and Mayon and was probably at Mayon to see the volcano building up last weekend, Self said.
"They were expecting an eruption any day and they got it," said Self, who also has been studying Pinatubo and Taal.
"They predicted it and were preparing for it."
Everyone who lived at the base of the volcano got out safely, Self said.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported 14 explosions by late yesterday afternoon, with ash shooting 4 miles into the air and darkening the sky.
Repeated explosions indicated that magma still was rising to the mountain's 8,118-foot lava dome. Scientists said a more violent explosion could occur.
Self was in the Philippines in November doing more work on Pinatubo and is planning a trip this year to Mayon with Peter Mouginis-Mark, a fellow volcanologist.
Mouginis-Mark is principal investigator for NASA's Earth Observing System program to assess global volcanism, hazards and atmospheric inputs.
Self said they are expanding their research program in the Philippines to Mayon -- a target volcano for a NASA satellite launched in December.
Self said he hasn't heard from Torres since Mayon, about 200 miles southeast of Manila, began hurtling rocks and ash into the sky.
He believes Torres went to Pinatubo with a Japanese scientist who wants to drill holes in the volcano and measure the temperature of 1991 eruption deposits.
"They're still hot. We know because we camped on them in November," Self said, adding that he hopes Torres is at Pinatubo, and safe from Mayon's explosions.
Mayon has been very active, he said, noting that the volcano erupted last year, in 1996 and in 1993. A lava flow collapsed off the volcano's "spectacular steep slopes" in 1993, killing 70 people, he said.
The area is vulnerable to deadly superheated flows of volcanic ash that travel up to 50 mph and can incinerate anything in their path.
Taal also is under watch because of recent activity on an island in the middle of a lake in the caldera, Self said.
