Taal Volcano

Phivolcs, which is the main body monitoring seismic and volcanic events in the Philippines, announced recently that they have heigthened its Volcano Alert Level to Alert Level 2 for Taal Volcano.

According to the Phivolcs website:

In view of the above observations and the interpretation that a fresh batch of magma has been intruding towards the surface, as manifested in the seismic swarms in 1992, 1994, 2000 and 2004 to present, Taal Volcano’s status is now raised to Alert Level 2, meaning that the volcano is undergoing magmatic intrusion which could eventually lead to an eruption. PHIVOLCS reminds the general public that the Main Crater remains off-limits because hazardous steam-driven explosions may occur, along with the possible build-up of toxic gases. Areas with hot grounds and steam emission such as portions of the Daang Kastila Trail are considered hazardous. PHIVOLCSreiterates that the whole Volcano Island is a Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ) and permanent settlement within this area is strictly prohibited.

I have always thought that the whole lake and not just the little real volcano used to explode thousands of years back. I believe that the little island at the center of the lake is just a remnant of a much older volcano from long ago. I basically derived this theory from the same kind of volcanic eruption that occured in Indonesia before which was studied by Scientists. Scientists claim that a whole lake in Indonesia which is much bigger than that of Taal used to be the crater of a volcano which probably caused super cooliong of the earths athmosphere thousands of years ago when it erupted. In fact when they collected soil samples from mountains in the different borders of that Indonesian volcanic lake, they found out that they are of the same type and quality. This is the same theory that I am applying now for Taal Volcano and the entire Taal Lake.

I do not think that Taal Volcano is the smallest in the world. I think that in fact, it could be one of the biggest. This is if it could be proven that the whole Taal Lake and its sorrounding mountainous edges are part of one big crater.

This belief basically made my wife mad. You see, we were scheduled to go to Tagaytay this weekend for our 6 months celebration of being husband and wife. But after I heard the news about the Alert level in Taal being heightened, and Tagaytay being part of my so called Taal crater, I told my wife to cancel the booking. In effect this means lost money as the terms of Agreement that we have for the hotel we are going to stay at claims no refund for bank deposits. I sure am gonna be whipped when I come home tonight. Wish me luck. But let us all wish the whole Taal area more goodluck. Be safe mga kabayan!