Metro Manila, Philippines — A minor steam-driven eruption occurred at Taal Volcano’s main crater in Batangas on Tuesday morning, Dec. 3, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported.
Phivolcs said the four-minute phreatomagmatic episode at 5:58 a.m. generated as much as a 2.8-kilometer plume of smoke above volcano island that drifted west-southwest.
Officials and residents in Barangay Poblacion, Agoncillo and Barangay Buso-buso, Laurel reported traces of ash.
Phivolcs warned against entry into Taal’s permanent danger zone, while pilots must also avoid flying close to the volcano.
Taal Volcano remains at the lowest alert level, the agency said, but it could be upgraded to Level 2 “[s]hould phreatomagmatic activity at Taal persist or intensify.”
Phivolcs said the “low level unrest” means that “hydrothermal or tectonic activity beneath the volcano may be occurring; steam-driven, gas or hydrothermal explosions can occur without warning.”
“Taal has been exhibiting increased volcanic gas emissions and localized ground deformation for the past month although volcanic earthquakes have been at low levels,” volcanologists said.
“The background levels of volcanic earthquake activity and localized ground deformation detected at Taal indicate that unrest is unlikely to progress into a major magmatic eruption at this time,” they said.
