NORTHEAST- SOUTHWEST 
CROSS SECTION OF THE CRATER 
OF 
TAAL VOLCANO 
Dotted linz shows old cratir floors 
Solid line, shows nzw crater floor: 
Scale 
I07S 215 430 M 
N.E. 
230 M^ 
Whitz Lake Feb 17, 1911. 
CROSS-SECTIONS OF TAAI, VOLCANO BEFORE; AND AFTER THE GREAT ERUPTION 
to have been 8 to 12 inches. On the 
neighboring- mainland it was shghtly 
less. 
Newspaper reports, to the contrary 
notwithstanding, there was no flow of 
lava during this eruption, nor is there 
evidence that there has ever yet been a 
lava flow from this volcano. 
While a number of observers report 
having seen a bright glow in the cloud 
overhanging the crater, and while Father 
Saderra Maso has suggested that this 
may have been due to the reflection of 
light from a mass of exposed lava, which 
was soon afterward blown to fragments 
by escaping steam, the fact remains that 
no particles of fresh lava can be detected 
in the mud or ash thrown out, and this 
theory must therefore be abandoned. 
The glow observed was doubtless caused 
by incandescent gases or by electrical 
discharges. 
It is certain that incandescent rocks 
were ejected, although in comparatively 
small number. Most of the rocks thrown 
out, whether glowing or not, were of 
small size. 
Attention has already been called to 
the fact that the ejected mud was 
strongly acid. It burned every living 
thing on which it fell and, driven by the 
force of the great explosion, tore the 
bark from trees and the skin from hu- 
man beina:s. 
THE AREA OF DEVASTATION 
The area materially affected by the 
seismic disturbances caused by this erup- 
tion was some 200 miles in diameter. 
The number of such disturbances which 
occurred before, during, and soon after 
the eruption was extraordinary. From 
January 27 to February 7, inclusive, there 
were recorded at Manila 472 disturb- 
ances of intensity I, 97 of intensity II, 
76 of intensity III, and 62 of intensity 
IV, with sufficient additional micro-seis- 
mic disturbances to bring the total up to 
the unprecedented number 995. 
The more violent earthquakes greatly 
alarmed people as far north as Manila, 
but actual damage was practically limited 
to the land area inclosed between the two 
fissure lines shown on the map on page 
315. Along- these lines there were ver- 
tical displacements of i to 2 or more 
yards. The highway along the sea near 
Lemery sunk so that it was under water 
at high tide. 
At Sinisian, where the westernmost of 
the fissure lines intersects the coast line, 
there formed on the sea beach a little 
crater, from which mud was at times 
ejected to a height of 100 feet. Puffs 
of gas were in a number of instances 
discharged with considerable violence 
when the fissures opened. A great part 
of the region between the two fissure 
lines settled materially. Volcano Island 
361 
