For Getty Images
14 January, 2020
A resident of Laurel, who returned home briefly to retrieve belongings, carries religious figurines, in Batangas, Philippines. Officials highly advised against residents returning to their homes at the time, as the volcano was still very active.
Taal Volcano, in Batangas province, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, began erupting on 12 January, spewing ash up to 14 kilometers into the air. The volcano generated ashfalls and volcanic thunderstorms, forcing evacuations from the surrounding area. The eruption progressed into a magmatic eruption, characterized by a lava fountain with thunder and lightning. According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, a total of 212,908 families, nearly 750,000 people, were affected by the eruption. Damage caused to infrastructure and livelihoods, such as farming, fishing and tourism, was put at around US$70 million. Taal volcano is in a large caldera filled by Taal Lake, and is one of the most active volcanoes in the country. It is a ‘complex volcano’, which means it doesn't have one vent or cone but several eruption points that have changed over time. Taal has had 34 recorded historical eruptions in the past 450 years, most recently in 1977. As with other volcanoes in the Philippines, Taal is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of major seismic activity that has one of the world's most active fault lines.
Ezra Acayan
Ezra Acayan (b. 1993) is a photojournalist based in the Philippines with a decade of experience covering politics, climate change, and social injustice. Since 2019, he has r...
