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MANILA,
Philippines (AP) _ The Mayon volcano shook with dozens of
small earthquakes and belched 10 times more sulfur dioxide
than normal, indicating an eruption in days or weeks, scientists
said Monday.
Emissions
of more than 5,000 tons a day of sulfur dioxide have been
recorded since Sunday morning, and magma bubbles are several
hundred feet below the surface and could soon erupt, volcanologist
Julio Sabit. The conical 8,118-foot mountain, some 215 miles
southeast of Manila, last erupted Feb. 24, 2000, driving
68,000 people from their homes.
Sabit
said that a four-mile area around Mayon was declared permanently
off limits after the volcano erupted last Feb. 24 and forced
evacuation of area villages and farms from its fertile slopes.
Mayon"s most violent eruption, in 1814, killed more than
1,200 people and buried an entire town in volcanic mud.
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