In explosive eruptions last Sunday, the Taal Volcano, located on the island of Luzon, some 70 kilometres south of the capital city of Manila, began to violently spew magma, which has led to the evacuation of more than 38,000 people to 198 evacuation centers so far.
Within hours, the volcano shot a mile-high plume of ash and triggered multiple earthquakes. Taal has had at least 35 reported eruptions since records began, most recently in 1977.
The country of 105 million sits on the Pacific Ocean’s “ring of fire”, where seismic activity is frequent.
Although eruptions had eased by Wednesday, Taal remains on level four of a five-step alert level, signaling the possibility of a flare-up within hours or days that still threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.