Arya News - While minor volcanic activity was recorded at Taal Volcano’s main crater, these eruptions were usual given the volcano’s current alert Level 1 status.
MANILA – The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) advised the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to continue retrieval operations in Taal Lake after minor eruptions on Thursday afternoon.
Phivolcs Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division (VMEPD) chief Ma. Antonia Bornas told the PCG that while minor volcanic activity was recorded at Taal Volcano’s main crater, these eruptions were usual given the volcano’s current alert Level 1 status, Phivolcs said in a message to reporters.
The agency reported a minor phreatic eruption at Taal Volcano on Thursday afternoon, with a plume reaching 2,400 meters and drifting southeast. Its monitoring data also showed minor phreatomagmatic events at the main crater between 3:01 p.m. and 3:13 p.m.
READ: Phivolcs logs minor phreatic eruption at Taal Volcano
Bornas advised that “this kind of activity has been usual and recurring since 2021,” and “the direction of the plume is southeast, which is opposite the direction or location of the retrieval operations.”
She added that Taal Volcano Island remains off-limits to the public as part of the permanent danger zone.
Phivolcs said that the coast of Laurel town in Batangas, where the search is centered, lies four to five kilometers away from the crater and outside the designated danger area.
Authorities have been conducting retrieval operations in Taal Lake as part of efforts to locate the missing “sabungeros” or cockfighting aficionados who were allegedly killed over game-fixing disputes. A whistleblower claimed their bodies were dumped in the freshwater lake in Batangas, prompting coordinated search efforts by the police and coast guard in recent days.
READ: DOJ chief: 3 bodies dug up at Taal may be from drug war
“A phreatic [explosion] is a sudden, usually short-lived eruption, triggered by the contact of groundwater or water under the volcano, with hot rocks underneath the volcano,” Phivolcs explained.