Taal eruption could last years – Phivolcs
Credit to Author: Franz Lewin Embudo| Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2020 16:22:24 +0000
Taal Volcano’s restiveness could last for months, or worse, years, a government volcanology expert warned on Monday.
The volcano burst into life on Sunday, sending a kilometer-high column of ash into the sky. The winds carried the ash north, as far as Metro Manila.
Thousands living on the volcano island fled their homes, as did thousands more in the towns fringing Taal Lake.
As ash blanketed towns, the province of Batangas was forced to declare a state of calamity.
But that could just be the beginning of what could be a prolonged seismic episode for Taal, Ma. Antonia Bornas, the Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division chief of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said in a radio interview on Monday.
The volcano is at Alert Level 4 of a five-stage alert ladder. That means a “hazardous explosive eruption is possible within hours to days.”
Bornas said Taal’s activity “could last for months or years, we can’t tell now.”
She noted that in 1911, the volcano’s eruption lasted only three days. In 1754, it lasted seven months.
The seismic activity could intensify and even include a volcanic tsunami, Phivolcs Supervising Science Research specialist Winchelle Sevilla said in a press briefing in Tagaytay City.
Sevilla explained that a tsunami could occur when water is displaced by deformation on the lake floor caused by rising magma.
Also on Monday, a “weak” lava fountain gushed from the volcano for an hour and a half.
Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum said the fountain indicated that lava had reached the volcano’s crater.
It does not mean, however, that the volcano had entered the “hazardous explosive eruption” phase, he added.
If the eruption is similar to that in 1965, 1911 and 1754, “we will see flows of ashes, rocks, gas at speeds of more than 60 kilometers per hour horizontally, and that can move across the lake,” Solidum said.
Taal spewed ashes at around 11 a.m. Monday up to 30 meters high. A stronger phreatic eruption occurred at 2 p.m., with an ash column reaching at least 100 meters high.
On its Twitter account, Phivolcs reported “increased steaming activity” in at least five spots inside the main crater.
Since March last year, the volcano had been showing signs of moderate to high-level seismic activity.
On Monday, Sen. Francis Tolentino said 2,129 evacuees from Batangas were at temporary shelters in Tagaytay City.
Tolentino, chairman of the Senate local government committee, led the Taal Volcano interagency coordination meeting attended by representatives from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police (PNP), National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of
Health (DoH), Department Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and local government units.
Tolentino also asked the PNP and DPWH to clear the roads covered by a thick layer of volcanic ash so that relief could reach stricken residents.
Sta. Teresita, Batangas Mayor Norbero Segunial Jr. likened his town to a desert because it was fully covered in volcanic ash.
“The people there have no food to eat and water to drink,” Seguinal said.
The DoH has assured Tolentino it has enough face masks to be distributed to evacuees and volunteers.
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport, meanwhile, started to return to normal Monday after being shut down by Taal’s activity.
The partial opening of the airport allowed President Rodrigo Duterte to fly back to Manila from his hometown Davao City.
Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte was on the first plane that landed in Manila on Monday morning.
Malacañang suspended on Monday classes at all levels and work in government offices in Metro Manila, Central Luzon and the Southern Tagalog region.
WITH JAVIER JOE ISMAEL AND CATHERINE S. VALENTE