Facebook (FB) netizens resurfaced an old clip of Taal Volcano spewing plumes, claiming it happened last month. Not true. The clip was from the volcano’s eruption in March 2022.
Circulated as early as Sept. 22, the 42-second video shows residents screaming as they observed a series of explosions generating ash plumes from the volcano’s crater. A FB reel bore the caption:
“Taal Volcano. Ingat po tayo (Let us be careful). #reelsvideo2023 #viralreels #fbyシ#facebookreels”
This video is not recent, but taken in March 2022. Taal volcano’s phreatomagmatic eruption happened between 07:22 AM and 08:59 AM that generated up to 3,000 meter-tall eruption plumes, according to a March 26, 2022 advisory from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
The old clip appeared in GMA News’ broadcasts on Taal Volcano’s March 26, 2022 eruption. One of the reports stated that the video showed residents of Brgy. Banyaga in Agoncillo, Batangas.
Phivolcs’ Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division chief senior research specialist Ma. Antonia Bornas further confirmed this in an Oct. 3 email to VERA Files.
“We did raise the Alert Level to 3 on March 26 due to repeated phreatomagmatic bursts from the Taal Main Crater, and we did recommend evacuation of six high-risk barangays of Agoncillo and Laurel,” she said.
The old video was re-shared among Filipino netizens a day after Phivolcs released an advisory about volcanic smog observed over Taal Lake.
VERA Files Fact Check just last week debunked a clip of Taal Volcano’s eruption in 2020 also falsely passed off as new.
(Read OLD video of Taal Volcano eruption resurfaces amid 2023 unrest)
According to Phivolcs’ Oct. 2 advisory, Taal volcano is under Alert Level 1 or low-level unrest. Steam-driven or phreatic or gas-driven explosions, volcanic earthquakes, minor ashfalls and lethal volcanic gas accumulations or expulsions may occur.
The two videos uploaded by the FB users garnered 10,334 reactions, 533 comments, 4,500 shares and 987,000 views.
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