Phivolcs: Sulfur dioxide from Taal Volcano reaches new record-high

Sulfur dioxide emission from Taal volcano reached a new high on August 7, Phivolcs says. (File Photo)

LUCENA CITY—Taal Volcano’s sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission reached a new record-high on Sunday, August 7, nearly a month after the alert status was lowered to Alert Level 1 on July 11.

In a bulletin at 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the SO2 gas flux in Taal was at 17,141 tons per day.

Phivolcs noted that Taal’s SO2 emissions since July 15 averaged at 6,041 metric tons a day, an increase from the average of 1,289 mt daily between May and mid-July.

An “increased degassing has been visible in the form of upwelling in the Main Crater Lake and voluminous steam-rich plume activity in the past three days,” the state seismologists also reported.

Taal Volcano also recorded on Sunday three tremor events that lasted for nine minutes.

On August 4, Phivolcs recorded 12,125 mt of SO2 emission, which prompted the authorities to warn residents around the volcano in Batangas to take safety precautions.

On July 11, Phivolcs lowered the warning status of Taal Volcano to Alert Level 1 (low-level unrest) from Level 2 (decreased). INQ

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