Taal Volcano's phreatic eruptions reached five —PHIVOLCS

The number of phreatic eruptions of Taal Volcano in Batangas on Friday reached five, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said Saturday.

From 12 a.m. Friday to 12 a.m. Saturday, PHIVOLCS monitored five phreatic eruptions at Taal Volcano, with one event lasting 13 minutes, it said in its bulletin.

On Friday, PHIVOLCS reported that there were four discrete phreatic or steam-driven eruption events at Taal. The eruption events were recorded by the Taal Volcano Network (TVN) from 9:45 a.m. to 3:22 p.m., as seen on the VTMC (Main Crater) observation station.

Fifteen volcanic earthquakes including six volcanic tremors meanwhile were also recorded from 12 a.m. Friday to 12 a.m. Saturday. These were observed to last from two to four minutes.

Last April 11, an average of 9,677 tones of sulfur dioxide was emitted by the volcano. PHIVOLCS said there was upwelling of hot volcanic fluids in the lake.

The agency also said that plumes reaching up to 2,400 meters were observed from 12 a.m. Friday to 12 a.m. Saturday. These drifted southwest and northwest.

Alert Level 1 remains in effect over Taal Volcano, PHIVOLCS said.

It reiterated that Taal Volcano Island, especially the Main Crater and Daang Kastila fissures, should be off limits.

Likewise, flying any aircraft near the crater is prohibited.

This is because Taal Volcano may have sudden steam or phreatic explosions, volcanic earthquakes, slight ashfall, and release of gas. —KG, GMA Integrated News