The lake is also “potentially dangerous”, as water could interact with the magma, making it “more explosive”, said Mr Kennedy. “Any of these types of threats would be a major hazard for people nearby,” says Ms Phoenix. There’s also the risk of a “volcanic tsunami”, she adds, which can be trigged by falling debris after an eruption generating waves in the lake. Image captionNearby villages have been covered in ash
US-based volcanologist Jess Phoenix says Taal has “a history of multiple eruption styles”, so it creates threats on the ground in the form of lava and in the air through ash. That event killed more than 1,300 people. It’s unpredictableĪt least 35 eruptions have been reported within the last few hundred years – the most recent was in 1977.Ī “very violent” eruption in 1911 from the main crater caused rock particles and fragments to shoot out of the volcano, according to news outlet Rappler.
The entire Volcano Island has been marked as a permanent danger zone by Phivolcs. Other vents and eruption points are underneath Lake Taal. Volcano Island alone has 47 craters and 4 maars – volcanic craters that form when hot magma comes into contact with shallow ground water, producing a violent steam explosion. These new eruptions are taking place on Volcano Island, which sits inside Lake Taal, a 234 sq km lake formed in the caldera of an earlier massive eruption. “Taal volcano is a baby volcano sitting within a much bigger caldera volcano,” said Ben Kennedy, associate professor of physical volcanology at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Media captionTime-lapse of lightning storm swirling round Philippine volcano Taal is defined as a “complex volcano” – it doesn’t have just one main vent or cone but several eruption points that have changed over time. So what is it about Taal that has got people so worried? It’s a ‘complex’ volcano
And according to Renato Solidum, the head of the Philippines’ Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs), it is “very small but a dangerous volcano”. Taal is tiny, as volcanoes go, but it has been deadly before. Scientists fear a bigger “hazardous eruption” is imminent. Over the past few days, it’s begun spewing lava, triggering earthquakes and emitting huge plumes of ash that have spread across the island of Luzon and beyond. Taal is one of the Philippines’ most active volcanoes.
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