A blog about science stuff from the Philippines and around the world
Mayon Volcano, the most active volcano in the Philippines, is erupting again. The activity started last January, and it's still continuing until now. Eruption types have ranged from Strombolian to Vulcanian. The volcano is continuously degassing, with some occasional lava fountaining. Here are some photos I took when got a chance to go there.
A few weeks ago, a portion of Mt. Pulag National Park caught fire after a butane stove from one of the campers accidentally exploded. Hiking and camping in the park has since been suspended, and those responsible have been sued and threatened with an PhP18.4 million (US$ 350,000) fine plus possible jail time. Using Sentinel-2... Continue Reading →
Last week, a deadly Mw 6.4 earthquake struck Hualien, Taiwan, killing dozens of people. The image is an interferogram processed from two descending . Sentinel 1 images dated February 5 and 11, 2018 using SNAP. The focal mechanism solutions are from the GEOFON Program. Take note that these are preliminary results, no additional corrections were... Continue Reading →
Mt. Agung, a volcano in Bali, Indonesia, has been experiencing unrest lately, and Indonesian officials fear that an eruption might be imminent, prompting thousands to flee. This is a differential interferogram generated from a pair of Sentinel-1 SAR imagery dated 28 August and 21 September 2017 downloaded from the Sentinel Data Hub and processed using... Continue Reading →
I think we can all agree that social media is a gold mine of data; one particularly underutilized area is extracting hazards-related data and making it useful for analysis. Last September 12, two typhoons almost simultaneously crossed the Philippines bringing heavy rains in many parts of the country. This caused floods in many different areas.... Continue Reading →
It's not often that I get the chance to participate in activities that bring our work to the communities. So when a colleague invited me to help out with their event, I jumped at the opportunity. Plus it was in my home region, so that was a bonus. I was there mostly to provide answers... Continue Reading →
A little over a month ago, heavy and sustained rainfall in Mocoa, Colombia triggered deadly landslides and debris flows, claiming more than 300 lives. Post-event analysis by scientists from GFZ Potsdam show that more than 600 landslides occurred within the watersheds next to town. The mixture of soil, rocks and debris from the landslides mixed with water... Continue Reading →
Photo above: At Inabanga, Bohol, where the ground rose about 3 meters. If you look closely, there's a person among the rubble, for scale. The 2013 Bohol earthquake was one of the Philippines' biggest earthquakes in recent history. It was a terrible disaster; killing a lot of people and damaging millions of pesos worth of properties. What's... Continue Reading →
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB6FYbBRz-s We often talk about rainfall, it's amount, intensity and subsequent effects. But it's hard to communicate how strong the rainfall is using words like "light" or "heavy" rainfall. How heavy is "heavy" really? Of course, saying it's x millimeters per hour of rainfall doesn't help, does it? So a couple of my colleagues in... Continue Reading →
