On March 26th 2022, at 7:06 am local time the Taal volcano south of Manila in the Philippines
produced an unexpected explosive eruption.
As the minutes after the initial explosion passed, it became clear that this eruption
was different than prior eruptive episodes witnessed in 2021 and earlier in 2022.
Instead of simply consisting of a single burst, the eruption was defined by continuous activity.
These continuous explosions were unusually large, generating a series of superheated
gas currents referred to as pyroclastic flows.
Some of these flows overflowed Taal Island's main crater lake.
As the eruption continued, a continuous plume of steam and ash was carried high into the
atmosphere, reaching an altitude of 11000 feet or 3350 meters.
Some of this emitted ash fell back to the ground around the crater lake, as seen in
this video.
This eruption energetically continued for another 114 minutes, and then stopped.
What had just occurred was Taal's largest volcanic eruption since January of 2020.
The up to 1 kilometer high explosions witnessed were multicolored where the white coloration
represented primarily water vapor and the black represented ash and small fragments
of lava.
Since a combination of water and fresh lava fragments were ejected, this eruption could
best be described as "phreatomagmatic".
Although the eruption may seem to have ended, this is not necessarily the case.
Phivolcs correctly raised Taal's alert level from 2 to 3, and strongly encouraged the evacuation
of everyone on Taal Island and more than a half dozen communities on the western section
of Taal's caldera lake.
Although these evacuations have not yet been made official, I also encourage everyone to
evacuate in an 8 kilometer radius of Taal's summit.
Here is why.
In recent months, although much of Taal island had been slightly subsiding, a small section
of it was being uplifted.
This uplift was confined to a straight line area, representing a very shallow dike intrusion
of magma.
The fear is that what just occurred is merely a precursor to a much larger eruption, which
could create a powerful explosion at the aforementioned dike.
Such an explosion would create pyroclastic flows that would be primarily directed to
the west, and would travel across the caldera lake, incinerating all vegetation in their
path and potentially reaching nearby communities.
A large pyroclastic flow might also affect more far reaching areas, as previous large
pyroclastic density currents have historically created tsunamis which raced around the caldera
lake.
Of course, what I just outlined represents a worst case scenario which although unlikely
could very well happen.
Ever since July of 2020, the Taal volcano has been producing insanely high levels of
sulfur dioxide gas.
The amount of sulfur dioxide gas released is a good indication of how much shallow magma
is present.
The more gas there is, the more shallow magma is present and thus the more likely an explosive
eruption becomes.
Ignoring today's eruption, the last 18 months of volcanic activity at Taal were defined
by small scale phreatomagmatic bursts.
These occurred quite randomly, although 85% of recent bursts occurred on days when the
volcano produced more than 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide gas.
10,000 tons may not sound like a lot so let me give you some context.
The Kilauea volcano in Hawaii produces 2,000 tons of sulfur dioxide each day while it is
erupting.
Yet, on several occasions, Taal has produced more than 20,000 tons in a day during periods
when it has not been erupting.
Thus, a large amount of magma exists at shallow depths which could theoretically erupt in
an eruption larger than what occurred in January of 2020, or it might remain there and solidify
at depth.
Thanks for watching, and please stay safe.
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