The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on Monday, June 21, launched an app containing information on volcanic activity as it marked its 69th founding anniversary.
The app, called VolcanoPH Info, provides bulletins, real-time information, and push notifications, as well as information about volcanoes such as level of acidity and sulfur dioxide.
VolcanoPH Info will not replace the texts sent by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management council, Phivolcs chief Renato Solidum saidsays in the Tapatan sa Aristocrat forum.
The app is 100- percent free and developed in house by Filipino programmers, Solidum added.
The VolcanoPH info app contains a list of volcanoes with active alert levels. Tapping on a specific volcano will show a 24-hour observation report and recommendations in Filipino.
Information in the app comes directly from the Phivolcs archive or from the Volcano Monitoring Database.
VolcanoPH Info is Phivolcs’ fourth app after Fault Finder (launched in 2016), Hazard Hunter (2019), and How Safe is my House (2021).
Solidum says Phivolcs was in the process of patenting the Hazard Hunters app.
“For Hazard Hunters PH, many countries are also asking us about it,” Solidum said.
Phivolcs plans to include local languages for warnings in the VolcanoPH app. The app is available on Android but there are plans to come out with an iOS version for iPhones, Solidum said. Dominic Emanuel Apolona