West Valley Fault

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology or Phivolcs has developed an app that can monitor volcanic activity.

Dubbed as VolcanoPH Info, the app will show alert levels of active volcanoes and parameters such as seismicity and plume level. It will provide real-time volcano advisories, with push notifications that will inform users on the latest volcano activity before they are even released on social media platforms.

Alert levels of each active volcano will also be available as with a 24-hour summary on its status and include safety recommendations for the users.

This app is interesting in that aside from showing users the seismicity or the number of volcanic earthquakes, it will also show the acidity level and temperature of the main crater, the level of sulfur dioxide that is being spewed by the volcano, and the volcanic plume level or gas particles that is being produced.

Not only that, the app will also provide information on some of the dangers that a volcanic activity may bring such as ground deformation, the sinking or swelling of the ground that is caused by gas, magma or fluids moving underneath or fault motion.

This will be perfect for volcanologists, enthusiasts, rescue teams, government officials, etc., and most importantly, the residents who can be directly affected by the volcanic activity.

The data will be coming from Phivolc’s Volcano Monitoring Network records and actual survey from the field as conducted by expert data analysts.

It is currently available only on Android, however, an iOS version will become available soon.

Source: Phivolcs/Rappler