Over the last year, we've been hearing about unrest at the Taal caldera in the Philippines. Last year, PHIVOLCS even raised the alert status briefly when seismicity at the volcano increased to a level that raised concerns it could erupt. The seismicity waned and the alert status was lowered, but PHIVOLCS has been keeping a close eye on the caldera that sits a mere 50 km from the capitol of the Philippines, Manila. The volcano is a case where careful monitoring and mitigation will hopefully save lives - one of the reasons it was a Decade Volcano.
As a refresher, the last eruption of Taal was over 30 years ago, in 1977, but these were mostly small phreatic (steam explosion) events. Taal is capable of producing significant explosive eruptions, including a potential VEI 6 eruption in ~3850 BC, multiple VEI 4 eruptions in 1716, 1749 and 1965, and frequent VEI 3 events. With this much potential for explosive eruptions so near a population center, the volcano must be watched closely.
Undated image of Taal in the Philippines.
Signs that some sort of eruption might be in the works continue at Taal. PHIVOLCS released a warning today about increasing carbon dioxide emissions at Taal, which that apparently quadrupled since this time last year - from ~1,000 tonnes/day to 4,600 tonnes/day. The current values are double that was observed in January of 2011. All of this suggests that magma is actively degassing somewhere under the volcano, and the increasing levels of CO2 suggest the magma might be slowly rising towards the surface. This does not mean an eruption is imminent or that any eruption would be catastrophic. On the contrary, the likelihood is high for a small eruption, starting as phreatic in nature and the hazard maps for Taal reflect this. Tourists and locals were warned to be wary of the threat of these increased carbon dioxide emissions and avoid the crater of the volcano.
PHIVOLCS issued a full report on the current activity at Taal that includes this increased carbon dioxide emissions, increased seismicity, periodic increases in steam emissions and very slight inflation - a combination that all indicate a higher probably of eruptive activity. It would seem that Taal is a volcano we should all watch very carefully in the near future.
Top left: Undated image of the active crater at Taal in the Philippines.
Taal could get real ugly, real quick, not good this close to population.
also isn’t the whole lake part of the Caldera?or should I say it IS the Caldera…
@T.G.: According to this map, the lake is within the caldera boundary.
Wikipedia has an eyewitness account of the 1754 eruption at Taal. Sounds pretty dramatic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taal_Volcano
And here’s some more.
http://www.iml.rwth-aachen.de/Petrographie/taal-mas/ta-maso.htm
#$*^….
Ya got me.
You linked in to some of your previous articles and I got lost for 20 minutes reading some really interesting commentary.
It jsut proves what a wealth of fascinating information you have here.
The monthly resumée for the activity of the Sicilian volcanoes in March 2011 is up at the INGV-Catania web site:
http://www.ct.ingv.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=340
@Mike Lyvers : I visited Pu’uO’o three times with French and US geologists in 1996, 1998 and 2006. In 1996, we reached the crater from the east, walking along Kupaiana’h and set up camp at the base of Pu’uO’o. In that year, the lava lake covered the whole surface of the crater. In 1998 and 2006, we came from the north and followed a small road in the Glenwood area. The road leads to a (5 mile long?) trail that crosses the forest. The walk is more pleasant than from the east but you need to be careful not to get lost as there are other trails starting from the main trail in the forest (no GPS possible because of the trees). We set up camp where the forest ends. Once you get out of the forest, you have a nice view of Pu’uO’o in the distance and you have to cross the lava field to reach it. I can remember that in 2006 there were catseyes to guide us along the way. (Maybe it is the trail you are referring to). They can be useful if you come back from the crater by night, like we did in 2006 as we stayed on the crater rim to observe the lava pond which was very active and made a noise like the sea. As someone put it on this blog, most of Pu’uO’o lies inside the Park and you need to be authorised to get there.
OT abouy Nirayongo (forgive spelling)
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=230433
Now, is this creditable or sensationalistic. Is the scientist just drawing attention to himself?
Meanwhile back at the ranch…
A 2.2 near Blackpool early hours, thats lancashire UK. Worth a mention I thought lol. Highlight a few calls to a already slightly shaking police station
Taal, must be one of the most dangerous volcanoes with all that water around, my mind dare not go there, I hoping nothing major surfaces.
@ Erik
Wheres the April fool? lol I’m disappointed.
When I visited Taal in 2005 (including a quick swim in the crater lake), it was told that the Taal volcano is the smallest volcano in the world, it is not really large if you just count the island, but I still wonder if there are not many other less known smaller volcanoes, even some that are active?
Also I like to point out that the untitled image is not actually of the big crater, but of a cone on the same island, the crater is much more shallow. A popular way of viewing the lake was when I was there to rent a hoarse and ride to the rim of the crater.
Not that I can discern.
http://i55.tinypic.com/64q87p.png
The magnitudes do go down as far as Ms 1.9, but it’s pretty sparse.
Well if it does you will be one of the first to plot it Lurk.
Incoming Tuesday a.m. in LA…. going to be crazy I think.
Not intending to beat a dead horse… but I’m still fiddling around with the on going AR swarm data… even went as far as downloading all of the weekly reports from AOGC in order to do permit # searches through them.
Both the Clarita and Chesapeake sites were plugged for ≈2 km operating depth. I still haven’t figured out the mechanics of how they could be responsible, the permitting for Class II injection wells has a calculating that specifies the maximum injection pressure, and it’s geared to keep them from exceeding the fracture pressure at the operating depth. If they were in standards, nothing should have occurred. The other possibility is that the fracture gradient is much lower in that area.
Now… for the wild arse question.
I’ve been reading a lot about liquefaction features in the southern Mississippi embayment… research that points to either a much much larger energy release from the NMZ area, or a local fault system that can cause widespread sand blows in the southern AR area.
While scouring Google Earth, I’ve found what appear to me, to be liquifaction areas in and around the southern area of the AR swarm. These would have been generated at some time in the last 10,000 or so years if they are real.
Other possibilities are disturbed ground from tree removal, or local flooding events. I’m not an expert and can be wrong. But to me, they look like that sort of structure.
So… IF I am correct.. and they are real, here is the odd question. Is the AR swarm a slow release of energy from that fault and is mitigating a larger event? If so, and Clarita and Chesapeake are responsible… thanks are due. If a large one is triggered… then Clarita and Chesapeake are possibly to blame… provided some mechanism can be identified.
Looking for information on the latest eruption? You've found the place. This is a blog dedicated to volcanism. Your host is Erik Klemetti, an assistant professor of geosciences at Denison University who spends most of his professional time thinking about magma. You can follow Eruptions on Twitter @eruptionsblog and by signing up for the weekly Eruptions newsletter. If you have any questions, news or anything volcanic, feel free to contact me at eruptionsblog at gmail.com.
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