Dissemination Department - Enero 29th 2009
ITER helps to improve the volcanic watch in the Philippines
These works are co-financed by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID).
A new scientific mission departed on January 26th to the Philippines, which is aimed to help to improve the volcanic monitoring of this Southeast Asian country located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, where some of the most active volcanoes of the world are located.
ITER will work in the Philippines during a 4 week period in collaboration with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), an agency of the Ministry of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Philippine government that is responsible for monitoring seismic and volcanic watch in this Southeast Asian country.
These activities belong to an international cooperation project that will last 18 months and is being co-financed by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECI), an agency that belongs to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and that has received the support of the Administrative Service of International Cooperation and European Affairs corresponding to the Economy and Competitiveness Area of Cabildo Insular de Tenerife.
The main objective of this international cooperation project is to provide PHIVOLCS with the skills and the technical resources needed to strengthen the volcanic watch in the Philippines by incorporating the diffuse emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) works as a scientific-technical tool to improve the detection of early warning signals on volcanic adverse events (volcanic eruptions, etc.).
During the scientific mission, the team ITER-PHIVOLCS will perform carbon dioxide (CO2) emission works mainly in the Pinatubo, Mayon and Taal volcanoes. The works to be developed in the Pinatubo and Taal volcanoes will be concentrated on their respective craters and more specifically in the lakes of the craters. In the case of Mayon the works on diffuse emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) are foreseen to be done in the entire volcanic building.
Another aim of this scientific mission in the Philippines will be to evaluate the emission of the main components of the volcanic gases (water vapour, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide) emitted into the atmosphere by the Mayon volcano.
This volcano of about 2421 meters high is located north of Legazpi City and 330 km southeast of the capital, Manila. It is the most active volcano in the Philippines, having erupted about forty times in the last four hundred years.
The gas emissions of the Mayon volcano will be evaluated by means of the combined use of remote optical sensors with other portable sensors that allow a chemical characterization of the Mayon volcanic plume.
