Taal Volcano

Taal Volcano comprises a large caldera about 25km in diameter with an active volcanic island in the centre, with its own crater lake and a small island in its centre. The volcano erupts frquently with the last major volcanic eruption lasting from 1965 to 1977. Only 50km south of Manila and enjoying a cooler climate because of its altitude the resort area surrounding the Taal Caldera is a very popular escape from the bustle of Manila. I fould that most people did not really have any awarenes on just how dangerous the volcano is. Villages have been rebuilt on the Island and in past eruptions pyroclastic surge eruptions have made it all the way across the caldera lake to wipe out settlements on the shore.

More information can be found at the following links

http://www.iml.rwth-aachen.de/Petrographie/taal.html  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taal_Volcano

"A moderately violent phreatomagmatic explosive eruption of Taal Volcano, Philippines, occurred from 28 to 30 September, 1965. The main phreatic explosions, which were preceded by ejection of basaltic spatter, opened a new crater 1.5 km long and 0.3 km wide on the southwest side of Volcano Island in Lake Taal. The eruption covered an area of about 60 square kilometers with a blanket of ash more than 25 cm thick and killed approximately 200 persons.

The clouds that formed during the explosive eruption rose to heights of 15 to 20 km and deposited fine ash as far as 80 km west of the vent. At the base of the main explosion column, flat, turbulent clouds spread radially, with hurricane velocity, transporting ash, mud, lapilli and blocks. The horizontally moving, debris-laden clouds, sandblasted trees, coated the blast side of trees and houses with mud, and deposited coarse ejecta with dune-type bedding in a zone roughly 4 km in all directions from the explosion crater."

Paper read at the IAV International Symposium on Volcanology (New Zealand), scientific session of Nov. 24, 1965.

 

 
Travel across to the lake is by the very distinctive high prowed outrigger boats. The "easy way" up to the crater is by riding a pony. I chose to walk back, partly beacause I felt sorry for the pony on the loose volcanic lapilli but also it was easier to photograph and see features.

The current summit crater contains a lake and a small island. There is quite a bit of evidence of thermal activity around the shores
The material exposed on the upper parts of the cone comprise fine grained lapilli. The eruptions that have occurred are predominantly pryoclastic surge eruptions often with a fair degree of water involved

.The volcano is monitored with remote sensing equipment.

The Caldera lake is very shallow with a high number of fish farms

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