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Can you correctly identify where Taal Volcano really is?
Netizen Lourdes De Las Cagigas posted on Facebook the correct location of Taal Volcano—and it’s not where most people think it is. Most Filipinos think Taal Volcano is the small mountain with a crater on the foreground. But that is not so.
Lourdes said she grew tired of hearing tourists and even tour guides refer to “Taal Volcano” when they were actually referring to Binintiang Malaki. Binintiang Malaki is a small crater which, with 47 other craters, is part of Taal Volcano island. The volcano is on the island itself and can be found over and behind the hill. Lourdes even suggested to tourists to confirm this fact for themselves by trekking up the hill to see the volcano. She posted a photo she got from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) with the islands properly labeled.
Other netizens commented on the post and shared how even the Department of Tourism may have been mistaken in printing their postcards.
There were some who said Lourdes was mistaken in her post. A netizen named Michael Corpuz said Lourdes did not know what she was talking about. He said. “both those islands are islands within the volcano. She probably doesn’t know when she shot the picture, she’s standing at the side of the crater and the entire lake is the crater. And what she’s pointing out is a crater within the island within the crater. It’s called volcano island because its an island inside the volcano. If you are friends with this person, please stop spreading. Its embarassing (sic).”
Lourdes replied by explaining the whole area is not the crater, but rather a caldera or an explosive volcanic eruption which caused the collapse of surface rock. According to the information she sourced from the Global Volcanic Society, “On the Filipino island of Luzon is Lake Taal. Within that lake is a volcano, Taal Volcano (Mt. Taal), At the top of the volcano, a thousand feet above sea level, is a basin, known as a caldera, carved out of the mountain hundreds of thousands of years ago. The caldera itself is filled with water, creating a crater lake, the largest crater lake in the world. At the center of the crater lake is a tiny island, Vulcan Point, which is one of Taal Volcano’s cones. To recap, that’s an island, within a lake, within another island, within a lake, on an island, within an archipelago, within the Pacific.”
Features photo from www.suggestkeyword.com.
