Diffuse CO2 degassing precursors of the January 2020 eruption of Taal volcano, Philippines

Nemesio M Pérez; Gladys V Melián; Pedro A Hernández; Eleazar Padrón; Germán D Padilla; Ma Criselda Baldago; José Barrancos; Fátima Rodríguez; María Asensio-Ramos; Mar Alonso; Carlo Arcilla; Alfredo Mahar Lagmay

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-22066-7

Diffuse CO₂ degassing precursors of the January 2020 eruption of Taal volcano, Philippines

Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 9;12(1):19091. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-22066-7.

Authors

Nemesio M Pérez^{1

2}, Gladys V Melián^{3

4}, Pedro A Hernández^{3

4}, Eleazar Padrón^{3

4}, Germán D Padilla^{3

4}, Ma Criselda Baldago⁵, José Barrancos^{3

4}, Fátima Rodríguez³, María Asensio-Ramos³, Mar Alonso^{3

4}, Carlo Arcilla⁶, Alfredo Mahar Lagmay⁵

Affiliations

¹ Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias (INVOLCAN), 38320, San Cristobal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. nperez@iter.es.
² Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables (ITER), 38600, Granadilla de Abona, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. nperez@iter.es.
³ Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias (INVOLCAN), 38320, San Cristobal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
⁴ Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables (ITER), 38600, Granadilla de Abona, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
⁵ National Institute of Geological Sciences, University of the Philippines, Diliman, 1101, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.
⁶ Department of Science and Technology, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, Quezon City, Philippines.

Abstract

On January 12, 2020, Taal volcano in Philippines erupted, 43 years after its previous eruption in 1977. This eruption was preceded by diffuse CO₂ degassing precursory signals. Significant temporal variations in diffuse CO₂ emission from Taal Main Crater Lake (TMLC) were observed across the ~ 12 years reaching high CO₂ degassing rates in 2011 and 2017, with values typical of plume degassing volcanoes. In addition to these CO₂ surveys at the TCML, soil CO₂ efflux continuous monitoring was implemented at Taal volcano since 2016 and a clear increasing trend of the soil CO₂ efflux in 2017 was observed. These geochemical observations are most simply explained by magma recharge to the system, and represent the earliest warning precursor signals to the January 2020 eruptive activity.