One of the country’s more active volcanoes, Taal Volcano suddenly started spewing steam and ash yesterday afternoon. Nearby residents have been evacuated and the international airport has suspended flights.
This morning I washed off a light coating of volcanic ash that had accumulated on the car overnight. Despite being called “ash”, it was more like a very fine grit or sand, so I didn’t want to just brush it off for fear of scratching the paint and glass. It’s started to rain this afternoon, which should help wash off any more ash. Hopefully I wont have to send someone on the roof.
Taal is in a rather picturesque location, being in a lake on an island in a lake on an island, quite close to Manila. When it’s not erupting, it’s a good boat ride and hike (not my footage, though I have been on a similar excursion). This also being the age of the smartphone, there’s a lot of images and video available of the current eruption:
The lake on the island in the lake on the island also has an island in it.
I was there a few years ago and noticed, IIRC, several condos built directly on the rim of the volcano, or am I misremembering things? Going from lake view to assploding volcano view will probably depress the resell value.
That lake is a caldera, formed from a previous eruption. If you are worried about what the ash could do to the paint job on your car, just think what it could do to the insides of your lungs!
Looks like IRC indeed, can’t say building this (and others) on the edge of an active volcano is a good idea, the island on the lake on the left side of the photo is the one going kablooey now.
There are apparently no N95-grade face masks to be had in the city, and local authorities are investigating reports of price gouging. That’s what’s recommended to keep out the fine particulate matter and what I wore during the Mt Pinatubo eruption in 1991. These days, I’m just staying indoors.
That’s in Tagaytay, on the north side of Taal Lake, in which is Volcano Island, on which is Crater Lake, in which is Vulcan Point Island. They’ve got a good view of the fireworks now.
The volcano is still steaming and there have been reports of fountains of lava. There’s almost no ash in the city today; I think the rain took care of most of it and the prevailing winds have shifted the other way.
Mother in-law lives in Alfonso about 15-20 miles to the west of the smokin hole. Water in local fish farms has gotten too warm and the fish are dead. Ground is too hot and crops are dying. Air is becoming too much for livestock. And now apparently there’s a lava ‘splash zone’ that her home is in. At least the earthquakes have calmed down to about one per hour. Had lunch with her and The Missus’ dad a couple years ago at the Starbucks on the edge of the lake. Breathtaking view.
Yow, scary. After seeing this video, I brought up Google Earth to look at that little inner lake, which is where these tourists were. From space, I can see the slag heap(s) where the eruption first started puffing through - there are footpaths all around the two points of initial eruption! Good thing these tourists were on the rim of the caldera and not hiking down around the interior.
Latest drone footage shows the inner Crater Lake has been completely drained of water and Volcano Island covered in ash. This is what it normally looks like. The smoke and ash have abated somewhat, but the ground is still shaking and the alert level remains at 4 (out of 5).
