Taal Volcano update: Phreatic eruption logged; Alert Level 1 stays

View of Taal Volcano from Tagaytay City (Niño Jesus Orbeta/Philippine Daily Inquirer / file photo)

LUCENA CITY  – Taal Volcano had a minor phreatic eruption early Thursday afternoon, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

“A minor phreatic eruption from Taal Volcano Island’s Main Crater at 12:39 p.m. today, 26 September 2024, was captured by the thermal camera of the Daang Kastila Observation Station (VTDK),” Phivolcs said in a Facebook post.

“Locally called as “pusngat,” the event produced a 2400-meter-high eruption plume that drifted northwest,” Phivolcs added.

On Wednesday, the volcano recorded another minor phreatic eruption at 1:59 a.m. and produced a 600-meter-high  plume that drifted southwest.

A phreatic eruption is a “steam-driven explosion that occurs when water, beneath the ground or on the surface is heated by magma, lava, hot rocks, or new volcanic deposits (for example, tephra and pyroclastic-flow deposits),” Phivolcs said.

The unrest, however, is unlikely to progress into a magmatic eruption based on the background levels of volcanic earthquake activity and the detected ground deformation, Phivolcs pointed out.

During the past 24 hours, state volcanologists also detected two volcanic tremors lasting from three to nine minutes.

Authorities observed no harmful volcanic smog, or “vog,” over the volcano since Wednesday, September 25.

Phivolcs, however, observed the continued “upwelling of hot volcanic fluids in the Main Crater Lake” of Taal Volcano Island (TVI), locally known as “Pulo,” which sits in the middle of Taal Lake.

Taal Volcano is still under alert level 1 (low level of volcanic unrest), Phivolcs said.

The agency reminded the public that Taal Volcano remains in an “abnormal condition” and “should not be interpreted to have ceased unrest nor ceased the threat of eruptive activity.”