Volcanic ash spewing from Taal Volcano in the Philippines is not likely to affect Taiwan’s air quality for now, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
Smoke and ash spewing from the volcano had reached an altitude of more than 10km on Monday, the bureau said, citing an infrared satellite cloud chart.
The ejected substance is expected to rapidly move northeast in the medium-to-high troposphere, it said.
From Monday to today, the volcanic ash would mainly spread to the Pacific region east of 125 degrees longitude, it said.
As the volcano is about 1,250km from Taiwan proper, the eruption and volcanic ash would not have any direct effect on the nation, the bureau said.
“However, people traveling to areas near Taal Volcano should be on alert and aware of information announced by the Philippine government. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines has suggested that civil flights avoid the airspace around the volcano, as the ash and gravel ejected by the volcano could damage aircraft,” it said.
Weather Forecast Center Deputy Director Chen I-liang (陳怡良) said that whether the ash would reach Taiwan depends on subsequent volcanic activity and atmospheric conditions.
Taal Volcano entered a turbulent stage at 1pm on Sunday, the bureau said.
The material being ejected from the volcano’s main crater has changed from steam to lava, it said.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has recorded multiple earthquakes triggered by the volcano, which it said is an indication of a continuous upward magma migration under the volcano and further eruptions.
The institute has a five-tier volcano alert system. It was at level 4 yesterday, meaning that magmatic processes or effusive eruption are under way, which could progress into highly hazardous eruption.
It also means that the danger zone could be extended up to 9km from the main crater.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS