Philippines maintain alert level for Taal volcano

Philippine authorities on Monday maintained the alert level for the Taal volcano, which entered its second week of eruption amid risks of a lava explosion, though smoke and ash emissions have diminished.

Renato Sodium, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said that although the volcano seemed calm, underground volcanic activity shows the opposite, so the alert level, set on January 12, remains at 4 out of 5, reports Efe news.

"There is definitely magma rising to the surface," the expert said.

Phivolcs reported that frequent volcanic earthquakes around Taal - 714 since the eruption began, 175 of them noticeable - indicate that magma continues to rise to the surface from the subsoil, which can lead to an eruption.

Sodium explained that the magma movement has caused the volcano te elevate, causing deep fissures and cracks on the surface, which have also been seen in the towns near Taal, located 60 km south of the capital Manila.

Taal is a small 311-meter high volcano, which forms an island in the middle of a lake of the same name.

"Lake Taal is stretching, the land is rising and the water level is going down, and the water in the main crater has evaporated while new smaller craters have been created," Sodium said.

Sulfur dioxide emissions - a substance that separates from magma when it is close to the surface - have risen to 4,353 tons in the last 24 hours, another symptom of the imminent risk of a lava eruption.

The eruption risk has forced the evacuation of all territories within 14 km around the volcano.

In eight days of eruption, more than 215,000 people have been evacuated, of which 112,700 are in one of the 416 evacuation centres enabled in public buildings.

Up to 16 municipalities located around Lake Taal, still covered by a dense blanket of ash, have been completely closed, with military controls at the entrances to prevent neighbours from returning home.

About 6,000 families that had lived on the slopes of the volcano for decades will not be able to return home after the government declared the small island "uninhabitable".

The government is looking for land of about three hectares located at least 17 km away from the volcano to relocate the inhabitants, who mainly worked as tourist guides, raising horses to take visitors to the volcano crater, which was a popular tourist destination.

( With inputs from IANS )