More quakes, gas emissions at Taal Volcano

MANILA, Philippines—More quakes and gas emissions have been detected from Taal Volcano, possibly indicating an eruption is looming, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said on Saturday.

Twenty volcanic quakes were detected in the 24 hours to Saturday 8 a.m. compared to 15 quakes in the same period on Friday, indicating that magma is still rising to the surface, Phivolcs said.

Additionally, the water in the crater of Taal is heating up while the volcano’s emissions of carbon dioxide have risen from 1,875 tons per day in February to 4,670 tons by the end of March.

“If this trend continues, we may have to raise alert level again,” said Paul Alanis of Phivolcs.

People were warned not to approach Taal’s crater or parts of its slopes where gas could still vent out.

Phivolcs on April 9 raised the second of a five-step alert around Taal Volcano, a popular tourist attraction 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Manila, after detecting signs that magma was rising to the top of the volcano.

However Alanis said this does not mean an eruption is imminent and that the volcano might yet stabilize.

Despite government pleas for people to leave the 2,500-hectare (6,178-acre) crater island, only 163 of the estimated 7,000 people living there have evacuated, the civil defense agency said in a statement.

Taal is one of the most unstable of the country’s active volcanoes with 33 recorded eruptions, the last one in 1977.

The lake surrounding the crater prevented deaths in 1977 and during other eruptions, as the body of water protected outlying areas from the lava.