A Facebook (FB) page uploaded a five-year-old video of Mayon Volcano spraying fountains of lava, and claimed that this shows a recent event. This is wrong.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has yet to record any lava fountaining during the volcano’s eruption this 2023.
Posted on June 9, the three-minute video showed a close look at the crater of the volcano located in Legazpi, Albay, violently spewing glowing molten material. It bore the caption:
“Close up video of Mayon Volcano June 9, 2023 8:00 to 8:30 Pm Brgy. 49 – Bigaa Legazpi City Ccto.”
The video was taken in 2018, which, according to the Phivolcs’ Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division (VMEPD), was the last time Mayon exhibited a lava fountain.
VMEPD chief Ma. Antonia Bornas told VERA Files Fact Check in a June 16 email that circulating videos or photos of lava fountaining in Mayon are not current.
“Lava fountaining briefly occurred during the 2018 eruption and more spectacularly occurred for longer and intense periods during the 2000 and 2001 eruptions. These are the last eruptions in which fountaining occurred,” Bornas said.
CNN Philippines’ FB page published the original video on Jan. 23, 2018. The clip was cropped and its speed was slightly adjusted in the currently circulating FB post.
The video with the wrong context was uploaded a day after Alert Level 3 was raised which means Mayon Volcano has an “increased tendency towards a hazardous eruption.”
According to Phivolcs’ latest advisory, for the past 24 hours, very slow outpouring of lava from the summit crater of Mayon Volcano “continued to feed lava flows and collapse debris on the Mi-isi and Bonga gullies.” Rockfall, ash and debris flows, and volcanic earthquakes were also recorded.
The FB page Pagadian Pride (created on Oct. 13, 2021) posted the false video that currently has 1,600 reactions, 50 comments, 700 shares and 74,000.
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