Taal remains restive

Phivolcs hoping for weaker than 2020 explosions

- ELLALYN DE VERA RUIZ

Taal Volcano remains under Alert Level 3 due continuous magmatic unrest that could trigger an explosive eruption.

Though the volcano is still restive, Taal may only have weak explosions as magma is already at a shallow level, said Science and Technology Un dersecretary and Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) OIC Renato Solidum Jr.

“Dahil de-gas na ang magma sa mababaw na parte, hindi po namin inaasahan na kasing lakas nung last year na mabilis na umakyat ang magma na maraming gas kaya malakas ang pagsabog (Because the magma in the shallow part is already gaseous, we are not expecting that explosions will be as strong as last year when the magma rose quickly with a lot of gas leading to a big explosion),” Solidum said in a televised briefing on Friday, July 2.

He pointed out that the five explosions that occurred Thursday, July 1, were relatively weak.

A short-lived phreatomagmatic eruption at Taal's main crater occurred at around 3:16 p.m. on Thursday. This event generated a dark grayish plume that reached up to one kilometer high.

Phreatomagmatic eruption is caused by magma coming into contact with groundwater.

The first explosion was followed by four short phreatomagmatic bursts that occurred at 6:26 p.m., 7:21 p.m., 7:41 p.m, and 8:20 p.m. that lasted no longer than two minutes each and produced short jetted plumes that rose 200 meters above the main crater lake.