On the largest island of the Philippines, Luzon rises the Taal Volcano, an active volcano located in San Nicolas and Talisay in Batangas. Consisting of an island in Lake Taal situated inside a caldera that was previously formed by a very large eruption, the island volcano is about 50km from Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

Taal Volcano has been erupting a large number of times and several of those times violently. These eruptions have caused loss of life and property in the outlying areas with a considerable death toll estimated to be between 5000-6000 casualties. Despite the alarming numbers, it is considered to be an ideal place to visit when it is calm and in it's less active state due to the features that make this island quite unique.

Geological Information.

The Volcano of Taal being located in in the Philippines, forms part of a chain of volcanos the lie along the western side of the northern island of Luzon. These volcanoes formed by the subduction of the Eurasian Plate beneath the Philippine Mobile Belt are today either active or dormant in nature. The Taal Lake which houses the volcano lies inside a 25 to 30 km caldera that was formed by four explosive and high intensity eruptions anywhere between 500,000 to 100,000 years ago.

Ever since the caldera's formation, subsequent eruptions eventually created another volcanic island within the caldera. This island is know as Volcanic Island and has an area of around 23 square kilometers that consist of craters and overlapping cones. Thus far 47 different craters and cones have been identified to exist on the island

The Crater and the Inner Island

Volcano Island already a volcanic island also contains a lake that is about 2km across on it is largest axis, this lake is named Crater Lake. Crater Lake a calm and serene warm body of water has within it yet another volcanic island, and this is called Volcanic Point. This particular volcanic island is considered to be the world's largest island within a lake on an island within a lake on an island

These features of Taal Volcano makes it a unique place to visit when it is not on it's most active state. There have been 33 recorded eruptions since 1572, today it lies in a dormant state and has been so since 1977 although the volcano has been showing signs of unrest since 1991. This has been evident with relatively strong seismic activity, ground fracturing events, and the formation of small mud geysers within the different parts of the island.

Even with the apparent state of unrest the volcano is experiencing, there has been a lot of visits to the islands not only by the volcanologists and scientists, but also by the media and tourists. The Taal volcano presents a unique opportunity to see one of the wonders of nature that has taken hundreds and thousands of years to create, this uniqueness alone makes this an ideal place to visit for the more adventurous and curious.