A lake inside an erupting volcano spewing ash for days has all but vanished.
The Taal volcano in the Philippines has recorded more than 100 tremors since Wednesday, meaning magma is still rising.
A satellite image now released from Iceye, show how the lake inside the volcano has almost dried up completely due to the eruption.
The image shows a dotted line around the area where the lake used to be, compared to a small solid line showing just how much it has shrunk to currently.
“Taal volcano’s lake has almost disappeared due to the Taal Volcano eruption in the Philippines,” Iceye tweeted.
#TaalVolcano‘s lake has almost disappeared due to the Taal Volcano eruption in the Philippines, as visualized here, based on ICEYE #SAR data from 16 January, 6:37AM UTC. Dashed line – waterline before eruption, solid line – waterline at the time of acquisition. pic.twitter.com/oAtzLkTOlf
— ICEYE (@iceyefi) January 16, 2020
The volcano is now showing signs of calming, but seismologists say the danger of the eruptions remains high and authorities are warning evacuees not to return to homes.
Chief science research specialist at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), Maria Antonia Bornas, said they were analysing what the seeming calm of the volcano meant.
She also said the drying of the lake inside the Taal was expected since it began spewing lava fountains a day after it shot giant clouds of ash miles into the air on Sunday.
Some residents took advantage of what they perceived as a lull in the activity of Taal, one of the country’s most active and deadliest volcanoes, to return home even though a 14km exclusion zone remains in place.
More than 53,000 residents have abandoned their homes around Taal to take shelter in evacuation centres, but thousands more are refusing to leave or have already drifted back to check on their animals and possessions.
One image of the erupting volcano was captured from an airplane window. Source: Tom Hamilton/Cover Images
Power has been restored in some areas in nearby Tagaytay city where business owners were cleaning away the ash and preparing to start trading again.
Although Taal is one of the world’s smallest active volcanoes at only 311 metres high, it can be deadly.
One eruption killed more than 1300 people in 1911.
Taal has erupted more than 30 times in the past five centuries, with the most recent in 1977.
The Philippines lies on the “Ring of Fire”, a belt of volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean that is also prone to earthquakes.
– with AAP
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