Mount Mayon, a volcano in the Philippines, may be about to erupt, causing government officials to order a mandatory evacuation of thousands of residents from the area. Nearly 50,000 people may be evacuated from the region, as lava starts to flow from beneath the geological feature.
Evacuations are being ordered for people living within a five-mile radius of the volcano. The process began on Sept. 16 and is expected to take three days to complete.
"We'll have no problems with the 99 percent who will evacuate but there are some who will be hard-headed. They don't want to leave their houses and their livelihood. These are coconut and orchid farmers with chickens, pigs and carabaos (water buffalo)," Renato Solidum, director of the state volcanology agency, said.
Earthquakes are rattling the volcano, as magma moves underneath the geologically active mountainside. Geologists believe the volcano could experience a large-scale eruption within a few weeks.
Mount Mayon is located roughly 200 miles southeast of the national capital of Manila.
Some tourists are visiting the volcano at night, in order to view the flowing lava.
"This will boost local tourism. It's like a party, people are out at night watching. It's dramatic, like a fireworks show. When there's nothing happening (in the volcano) it's all dark around here, but now it's picture-perfect," Marti Calleja, director of all-terrain vehicle tours near the volcano, told the press. He normally brings up to 100 tourists to the volcano each week.
In May 2013, during the last eruption of Mount Mayon, four tourists and their guide were killed during an expedition. The group was on the slope of the volcano when they met their fiery end.
The alert level for the mountain has been raised to three out of five, signifying "relatively high unrest." A pronouncement of five on that scale is declared only in the event of an active eruption.
Mount Mayon has killed significant numbers of people in the Philippines. Over 1,200 residents were killed in 1814, when an eruption of the volcano destroyed the town of Cagsawa, burying the residential enclave in volcanic dust and lava. An eruption in 2006 did not cause any immediate human deaths, but the event did create a vast deposit of volcanic mud. When a typhoon later hit the area, the material was released, burying 1,000 people under the fast-moving mud.
The area is popular with tourists, and a major eruption of the volcano could cause problems for aircraft passing through the region. Volcanic glass can enter jet intakes, ruining engines, potentially posing a hazard to commercial flights.
