On January 12, Taal Volcano in the Philippines, located about 60 km. ( 37 miles ) south of Manila , erupted again. Its last eruptions were in 1965 ( and lasted til 1969) , and in 1977. This time, right after the eruption, volcanic ashes ( again !) blanketed places way beyond the 14 km. radius danger zone, forcing even those from Manila to wear masks.
In 1991, the biggest volcanic eruption of the 20th century was that of Mt. Pinatubo, about 60 miles north of Manila. The eruption was so huge it penetrated the stratosphere and lowered the earth’s temperature by .50 C . Ashes blanketed the whole of Metro-Manila, with zero visibility, and made 12 noon looking like 12 midnight. Ashes that fell over Manila were at least 1 inch thick. Needless to say, areas near Mt. Pinatubo were erased off the face of the earth.
Not to mention the strongest typhoon in the history of mankind, Typhoon Haiyan, in 2014 . It was so strong it went beyond Category 5, and caused a 14 meter high tsunami-like storm surge.
Then, add the frequent earthquakes to this pile of disasters……. To Filipinos, 6.4 in the Richter scale is nothing. I’d said this before, and I say this again, people of the Philippines eat disasters and natural catastrophes for breakfast.
Pardon my language but , this was me when I heard the news of eruption. I was like, what about my vacation? ? Okay, that’s thoughtless of me…. I mean , here I am, worrying about my vacation, while over there, people are suffering.
Still…….
Seriously, Philippines , what the heck !
Well, Mom, my sister , a co-worker, and I , are going to the Philippines 17 days from now. Our original itinerary does include Taal Volcano…. unfortunately, my co-worker is now more eager and determined to see the “scene of destruction” . ( Uhm, I wanna see it too. ) . It’s been lowered to Category 3, to date….. I hope it’ll be okay and safe by the time we get there. Aaargh ! ( I bought a box of N95 mask.) Fyi, these are no ordinary ashes. They are made of microscopic shards of “glass”… from super -heated volcanic materials . They are very dangerous to our lungs when inhaled.
One of the photos below is that of yours truly, taken at the very scenic Taal Volcano in 2014. By the way, it’s the smallest volcano in the world and take note…… do you see the mountain on the left side of the picture ??? The mountain surrounds another lake which is actually the caldera of the volcano.
- sigh *
This is all for now.
By the way, my last post before this was in September , 2019.
Don’t ask.
Bye ! !
Am a Molecular Microbiology student, love to read books, and I play the violin. 
dreamsending
renxkyoko
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