THE Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) yesterday said Taal Volcano in Batangas will remain under Alert Level 1 (low-level unrest) despite the volcano’s phreatomagmatic eruption on Saturday, the second within a week.
In a radio interview, Phivolcs director Teresito Bacolcol said there was still no need to raise the volcano’s alert status to Alert Level 2 (increasing unrest), noting their monitoring parameters are still within the “background level.”
Taal had a “minor” phreatomagmatic eruption that lasted for four minutes last Saturday, or three days after a similar event.
Phreatomagmatic eruption is caused by the interaction of water with magma.
Also on Saturday, the volcano had six “minor” phreatic eruptions caused by the interaction of water with hot volcanic materials like rocks and gasses, Phivolcs said.
Phivolcs also recorded nine volcanic earthquakes at Taal on Saturday while the volcano’s sulfur dioxide emission was measured at 2,068 tons.
“We are expecting phreatic and sometimes phreatomagmatic eruptions because there is water. That’s the common denominator. Even at the crater, there is water so every now and then, there will be phreatomagmatic and phreatic eruptions,” said Bacolcol.
“That is why our advice to the people is to not go inside the Taal Volcano Island because anytime, even at Alert Level 0, there can be phreatic or phreatomagmatic eruptions,” he added.
Asked if Taal’s latest activities warrant raising the volcano’s alert status to Level 2, Bacolcol said Alert Level 1 will be retained, at least for now.
“But if there will be more frequent phreatomagmatic eruptions, if there will be an increase in volcanic earthquakes, if we observe inflation (of the volcano) and rise in sulfur dioxide emission, we may raise it from Alert Level 1 to Alert Level 2,” said Bacolcol.
Bacolcol said these monitoring parameters are within the “background level” at present, thus the retention of Alert Level 1.
“As of now, we have not seen an increase in volcanic earthquakes or if there are, they are at the background level. We have not observed inflation. But we will see, we will have to assess this on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
