Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fruit Train
Mains level: Logistics support for horticulture products
A âfruit trainâ, said to be the first of its kind in India, was flagged off from Tadipatri Railway Station in Anantapur district of Andhra.
About the fruit train
- This is the first time in India that an entire train is being sent to the gateway port (JNPT) for export.
- This helps save both time and fuel as 150 trucks would have been required to send a consignment of this size by road to JNPT, which is over 900 km away, before the temperature-controlled containers are loaded on ships.
- The bananas are being exported under the brand name âHappy Bananasâ.
- Farmers from Putlur region in Anantapur and Pulivendula in Kadapa district are exporting âGreen Cavendishâ bananas to many international markets.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nagoba Jatara
Mains level: Not Much
The month long Nagoba Jatara recently concluded in Adilabad dist. of AP.
Nagoba Jatara
- Nagoba Jatara is a tribal festival held in Keslapur village, Inderavelly Mandal[1] Adilabad district, Telangana, India.
- It is the second biggest tribal carnival and celebrated by Mesaram clan of Gond tribes for 10 days.
- Tribal people from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh belonging to the Mesram clan offer prayers at the festival.
- It starts in pushya masam. A ceremony of ‘bheting’ is it’s integral part where the new brides are introduced to the clan god during first jatra afer their marriage
- The few hundred Raj Gond and Pardhan Adivasis, men clad in pure white dhoti-kurta and the pagdi headgear and women in the traditional colourful nau-vari Maharashtrian style saree.
- The temple for which a new structure is coming up is dedicated to the serpent god, known as Shri Shek to the aboriginal people, and is the centre of all activities during the week long festivities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Beating Retreat Ceremony
Mains level: Not Much
The Beating Retreat ceremony recently took place at Vijay Chowk. The ceremony, which takes place on January 29 every year, marks the culmination of the four-day Republic Day celebrations.
What is the Beating Retreat function?
- âBeating Retreatâ marks a centuries old military tradition, when the troops ceased fighting, sheathed their arms and withdrew from the battlefield and returned to the camps at sunset at the sounding of the Retreat.
- The military tradition began in 17th century England, when King James II ordered his troops to beat drums, lower flags and organise a parade to announce the end of a day of combat.
- The ceremony was then called âwatch settingâ and took place at sunset after firing a single round from the evening gun.
- The ceremony is currently held by Armed Forces in the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and India, among others.
How did it begin in India?
- Beating the Retreatâ has emerged as an event of national pride when the Colours and Standards are paraded.
- The ceremony traces its origins to the early 1950s when Major Roberts of the Indian Army indigenously developed the unique ceremony of display by the massed bands.
- Section D (Ceremonials) at the Ministry of Defence conducts the event.
- The ceremony consists of musical performances by the bands, who each year play Indian and western tunes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: No-fly List
Mains level: Not Much
Four airlines in India have banned a stand-up comedian from taking flights after he allegedly heckled television news anchor on-flight.
No-Fly List
- In 2017, the government issued rules for preventing disruptive behaviour by air travellers and laid down guidelines for a no-fly list.
- As per the rules, a complaint of unruly behaviour needs to be filed by the pilot-in-command, and this is to be probed by an internal committee to be set up by the airline.
- During the period of pendency of the inquiry, the rules empower the concerned airline to impose a ban on the passenger.
- The committee is to decide the matter within 30 days, and also specify the ban duration.
- Any aggrieved person, upon receipt of communication of a ban from the airline, may appeal within 60 days from the date of issue of the order, to an Appellate Committee constituted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Three categories of unruly behaviour:
- Level 1 refers to behaviour that is verbally unruly, and calls for debarment up to three months;
- Level 2 indicates physical unruliness and can lead to the passenger being debarred from flying for up to six months;
- Level 3 indicates life-threatening behaviour for which the debarment would be for a minimum of two years.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: HADR, Op Vanila
Mains level: NA
Indian navy will perform HADR operations in Madagascar under ‘Operation Vanilla’.
Operation Vanilla
- Indian Navy Ship Airavat whilst mission deployed in the Southern Indian Ocean has been diverted to Antsiranana based on request recieved from Madagascar.
- The ship will undertake Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission as part of ‘Operation Vanilla’.
- It has been launched to provide assistance to the affected population of Madagascar post devastation caused by Cyclone Diane.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Oslo Peace Accord, West Bank
Mains level: Palestine-Israel conflicts
Palestinian officials threatened to withdraw from key provisions of the Oslo Accords, which define relations with Israel, if U.S. President Donald Trump announces his Middle East peace plan next week.
The Oslo Peace Accord
- The Oslo Accords were a landmark moment in the pursuit of peace in the Middle East.
- Actually a set of two separate agreements signed by the government of Israel and the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)âthe militant organization established in 1964 to create a Palestinian state.
- The negotiations between Israel and the PLO that ultimately led to the Oslo Accords began, in secret, in Oslo, Norway, in 1993.
- The Oslo Accords were ratified in Washington, D.C., in 1993 (Oslo I) and in Taba, Egypt, in 1995 (Oslo II).
- Sometimes called Oslo II, the interim agreement set out the scope of Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza.
- The interim pact was only supposed to last five years while a permanent agreement was finalised but it has tacitly been rolled over for more than two decades.
A final nail in the coffin
- World powers have long agreed that Jerusalemâs fate should be settled through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
- The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and believe Trumpâs plan buries the two-state solution that has been for decades the cornerstone of international Middle East diplomacy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Natrialba Swarupiae, Sambhar Lake
Mains level: Not Much
- Scientists at the National Centre for Microbial Resource â National Centre for Cell Science (NCMR-NCCS) in Pune have reported a new archaeon (a kind of microorganism), which they discovered in Sambhar Salt Lake in Rajasthan.
- The new archaeon has been named Natrialba swarupiae, after Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, for her initiative in supporting microbial diversity studies in the country.
Archaea
- Archaea (singular archaeon) are a primitive group of microorganisms that thrive in extreme habitats such as hot springs, cold deserts and hypersaline lakes.
- These slow-growing organisms are also present in the human gut, and have a potential relationship with human health.
- They are known for producing antimicrobial molecules, and for anti-oxidant activity with applications in eco-friendly waste-water treatment.
- Archaea are extremely difficult to culture due to challenges in providing natural conditions in a laboratory setting.
- As archaea are relatively poorly studied, very little is known about how archaea behave in the human body.
- The organism has potential gene clusters that helps maintain the metabolism of the archaea to survive in extreme harsh conditions.
Search and discovery
- Sambhar Lake has been poorly studied for microbial ecology studies.
- With a salt production of 0.2 million tonnes per annum, it is also a hypersaline ecosystem which provides an opportunity for microbial ecologists to understand organisms that thrive in such concentrations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Specialized Supervisory and Regulatory Cadre (SSRC)
Mains level: Governance of RBI
The RBI has decided to recruit 35% of the specialised supervisory and regulatory cadre from the market while the remaining 65% will be recruited via internal promotions.
Specialized Supervisory and Regulatory Cadre (SSRC)
- The SSRC will comprise officers in Grade B to Executive Director level.
- In Nov. last year RBI decided to reorganize its regulation and supervision departments.
- It merged the three regulatory departments (department of banking, non-banking and cooperative bank) into one and did likewise for the three supervisory departments.
- As a result, there is only one supervisory department which looks after supervision of banks, NBFCs and cooperative banks and only one regulatory department for these three.
- The move is aimed at dealing more effectively with potential systemic risk that could come about due to possible supervisory arbitrage and information asymmetry.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Vyoma Mitra
Mains level: Various functions of Vyoma Mitra in ISRO's unmanned missions
ISRO unveiled its first âwomanâ astronaut during the event âHuman Spaceflight and Explorationâ.
Vyom Mitra
- The AI-based robotic system is being developed at a robotics lab at the VSSC in Thiruvananthapuram.
- Vyom Mitra will be used for an unmanned flight of ISROâs GSLV III rocket in December 2020, which, along with a second unmanned flight in July 2021.
- This will serve as the test of ISROâs preparedness for its maiden manned space mission, Gaganyaan, being targeted for 2022 to mark 75 years of Indiaâs independence.
Functions of the humanoid
- Vyommitra, equipped with a head, two arms and a torso, is built to mimic crew activity inside the crew module of Gaganyaan.
- Attaining launch and orbital postures, responding to the environment, generating warnings, replacing carbon dioxide canisters, operating switches, monitoring of the crew module, receiving voice commands, responding via speech (bilingual) are among its functions listed.
- It will have a human-like face, with lips synchronised for movement to mimic speech.
- Once it is fully developed, Vyommitra will be able to use equipment on board the spacecraftâs crew module, like safety mechanisms and switches, as well as receive and act on commands sent from ground stations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: âBlue Cornerâ notice
Mains level: Cooperation measures for International policing
Interpol has issued a Blue Corner notice to help locate an infamous fugitive self-styled godman weeks after the Gujarat Police sought the agencyâs intervention for this.
 âBlue Cornerâ notice
- According to the Interpol website, âNotices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.â
- There are seven types of notices â Red Notice, Yellow Notice, Blue Notice, Black Notice, Green Notice, Orange Notice, and Purple Notice.
- The Blue Notice is issued to âcollect additional information about a personâs identity, location or activities in relation to a crime.â
Blue notices a/c to CBI
- The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) website refers to Blue Notices as âB Series (Blue) Noticesâ.
- It says, âThe âBâ series notices are also called âenquiry noticesâ and may be issued in order to have someoneâs identity verified; to obtain particulars of a personâs criminal record; to locate someone who is missing or is an identified or unidentified international criminal or is wanted for a violation of ordinary criminal law and whose extradition may be requested.â
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: InvITs and REITs
Mains level: Not Much
Markets regulator SEBI has put in place a framework for the rights issue of units by listed REIT and InvITs.
What are InvITs and REITs?
Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvIT)
- An Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvITs) is like a mutual fund, which enables direct investment of small amounts of money from possible individual/institutional investors in infrastructure to earn a small portion of the income as return.
- InvITs work like mutual funds or real estate investment trusts (REITs) in features.
- InvITs can be treated as the modified version of REITs designed to suit the specific circumstances of the infrastructure sector.
- They are similar to REIT but invest in infrastructure projects such as roads or highways which take some time to generate steady cash flows.
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT)
- A REIT is roughly like a mutual fund that invests in real estate although the similarity doesnât go much further.
- The basic deal on REITs is that you own a share of property, and so an appropriate share of the income from it will come to you, after deducting an appropriate share of expenses.
- Essentially, itâs like a group of people pooling their money together and buying real estate except that itâs on a large scale and is regulated.
- The obvious pitch for a REIT is that it enables individuals to generate income and capital appreciation with money that is a small fraction of what would be required to buy an entire property.
- However, the resemblance to either mutual funds or to owning property ends there.
- According to Indian regulation on REITs, these are meant to primarily own finished and rented out commercial properties ââ 80 per cent of the investments must be in such assets. That excludes a real estate that is under development.
Why need InvITs and REITs?
- Infrastructure and real estate are the two most critical sectors in any developing economy.
- A well-developed infrastructural set-up propels the overall development of a country.
- It also facilitates a steady inflow of private and foreign investments, and thereby augments the capital base available for the growth of key sectors in an economy, as well as its own growth, in a sustained manner.
- Given the importance of these two sectors in the country, and the paucity of public funds available to stimulate their growth, it is imperative that additional channels of financing are put in place.
What did SEBI rule?
- SEBI said the issuer will have to disclose objects of the issue, related-party transactions, valuation, financial details, review of credit rating and grievance redressal mechanism in the placement document.
- The SEBI had first notified REITs and InvIT Regulations in 2014, allowing setting up and listing of such trusts which are popular in some advanced markets.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Warren Hastings
Mains level: Read the attached story
Donald Trumpâs impeachment trial started in the US Senate. A precedent being discussed is that of the Warren Hastings case â the famous failed attempt by the British Parliament to impeach Indiaâs first governor-general.
Warren Hastings
- Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of Bengal (and the first de facto Governor-General of India), is considered among the most significant colonial administrators to have ruled India.
- First as the governor of Bengal (1772-1774) and then as Governor-General (1774-1785), Hastings strengthened British rule in India and made profound changes in administration.
- Hastingsâs conduct while in office was called into question after he returned to Britain in 1785, most prominently by Edmund Burke, the noted British parliamentarian and philosopher.
What was his impeachment case?
- In 1786, impeachment proceedings were initiated against Hastings, probing his alleged mismanagement, mistreatment of natives, and personal corruption while in India.
- William Pitt, the then British Prime Minister, first defended Hastings, but then joined the chorus against him.
- Hastingsâs argued that âWesternâ standards of legality could not be applied in the East.
- But Burke insisted that under the Law of Nature, people in India were entitled to the same protection as those in Britain.
- In 1795, however, the House of Lords acquitted Hastings, and the impeachment failed.
- Burke warned that such a verdict would live in âperpetual infamyâ, and the trial gave rise to a wider debate on the role of the East India Company in India.
Back2Basics
Warren Hastings and his major works
From 1772, Warren Hastings served as Governor-General of Fort Williams and the regulating act was passed after his arrival.
Important events under his rule :
- Hastings abolished the Dual System that had been established by Robert Clive. In the Dual System, the company had Diwani rights (rights to collect revenue) and the Nizam or Indian chiefs had the administrative authority.
- The judicial powers of the Zamindars were abolished. Civil and criminal courts were established. Two appellate courts were established at Calcutta, one for civil (Sadar Diwani Adalat) and one for criminal (Sadar Nizamat Adalat) cases.
- Hastings abolished the system of dastaks which were misused by company officials and traders earlier.
- He implemented several reforms in all walks of administration. The Regulating Act 1773 and Pitts India Act, 1784 were important acts passed during his tenure.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Coronavirus, Pneumonia
Mains level: Underlying threats and India's preparedness against the virus
Chinese scientists have confirmed can spread between human beings.
Corona Virus
- Corona viruses are large family of viruses, which cause illnesses to people and also circulate in animals including camels, cats and bats.
- They cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
- 2019-nCoV is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.
- Much remains to be understood about the new coronavirus, which was first identified in China earlier this month.
- Not enough is known about 2019-nCoV to draw definitive conclusions about how it is transmitted, clinical features of disease, or the extent to which it has spread. The source also remains unknown.
Why is it called the Wuhan Virus?
- The first cases emerged in Wuhan in central Chinaâs Hubei province.
- On December 31 last year, authorities confirmed that a large number of patients with unexplained pneumonia were admitted in hospitals in the city.
Symptoms of infection
- According to the WHO, common signs include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Serious infections can lead to pneumonia, kidney failure, and death.
- Although human-to-human transmission has now been confirmed, the WHO says animals are the outbreakâs likely primary source. It is not known yet which animals are responsible.
- To prevent the spread of all respiratory infections, the WHO in general asks people to cover their mouths and noses when coughing or sneezing, and to frequently wash their hands.
- Direct contact with farm or wild animals should be avoided â similar outbreaks in the past, like the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) emerged from markets where people were in contact with live animals.
Why is there concern around the world?
- People see a similarity with the SARS outbreak that infected over 8,000 people and killed around 775 in more than 35 countries worldwide in 2002-03.
- SARS too, was caused by a mystery coronavirus, and started in China.
- The source of the virus remained unknown for 15 years, until Chinese scientists in 2017 traced it back to a colony of horseshoe bats living in remote cave in Yunnan province.
- The virus was carried by civet cats which are sold in markets in China.
- Fears that SARS could reappear and memories of China misleading the rest of the world on the extent and seriousness of the outbreak have not gone away.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Xenobot
Mains level: Utility of stem cells in bio-robotics
Scientists in the US have created the worldâs first âliving machinesâ â tiny robots built from the cells of the African clawed frog that can move around on their own.
Xenobot
- Scientists have developed living robots from frogs stem cells.
- They have named this millimetre-wide robots âxenobotsâ â after the species of aquatic frog found across sub-Saharan Africa from Nigeria and Sudan to South Africa, Xenopus laevis.
- Scientists have repurposed living cells scraped from frog embryos and assembled them into entirely new life-forms.
- The xenobots can move toward a target, perhaps pick up a payload (like a medicine that needs to be carried to a specific place inside a patient) â and heal themselves after being cut.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Irrawaddy Dolphins
Mains level: Not Much
146 Irrawaddy dolphins were recently sighted in Chilika Lake of Odisha. The lake has highest single lagoon population of the aquatic mammal in the world.
Irrawaddy Dolphins
- IUCN Status: Endangered
- Scientific Name: Orcaella brevirostris
- Habitats: Lakes, Rivers, Estuaries, and Coasts
- The Irrawaddy dolphin is a euryhaline species of oceanic dolphin found in discontinuous subpopulations near sea coasts and in estuaries and rivers in parts of the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia.
- They are also found in coastal areas in South and Southeast Asia, and in three rivers: the Ayeyarwady (Myanmar), the Mahakam (Indonesian Borneo) and the Mekong.
- The total population of these aquatic mammals in the world is estimated to be less than 7,500.
- Of these, more than 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins have been reported from Bangladesh, while the dolphin distribution in Chilika is considered to be the highest single lagoon population.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: TCEPF, TRAI
Mains level: Telecom regulation in India
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has informed that telecom service providers will need to deposit all unclaimed money of consumers, including excess charges and security deposit, in the Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund (TCEPF).
Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund (TCEPF)
- The TCEPF Regulations, 2007 have been amended to provide the basic framework for depositing unclaimed money of consumers by service providers, maintenance of the TCEPF and other related aspects.
- Any unclaimed / unrefundable amount belonging to consumers in the TCEP fund will be utilized for the welfare measures of the consumers.
- With this amendment, service providers will deposit any unclaimed consumer money of any form such as excess charges, security deposit, plan charges of failed activations, or any amount belonging to a consumer, which service providers are unable to refund to consumers.
Why such move?
- The TRAI observed that there is a need to bring clarity among service providers in depositing money which they are unable to refund to the consumers.
- While some service providers were depositing money only on account of excess billing revealed in the audit, others were depositing unclaimed money such as security deposits and plan charges of failed activations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Yada Yada
Mains level: NA
A new virus detected in Australian mosquitoes has been provisionally named the Yada Yada virus (YYV).
Yada Yada
- It is an alphavirus, a group of viruses that the researchers described as small, single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses.
- It includes species important to human and animal health, such as Chikungunya virus and Eastern equine encephalitis virus.
- They are transmitted primarily by mosquitoes and (are) pathogenic in their vertebrate hosts.
- Unlike some other alphaviruses, Yada Yada does not pose a threat to human beings.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GSAT-30Â and its applications
Mains level: Not Much
Indiaâs first satellite of 2020, the GSAT-30 was successfully launched. The launch vehicle Ariane 5 VA-251 lifted off from Kourou Launch Base, French Guiana.
GSAT-30Â
- GSAT-30 derives its heritage from ISROâs earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series and will replace INSAT-4A inÂ
- In the days ahead, orbit-raising manoeuvres will be performed to place the satellite in Geostationary Orbit (36,000 km above the equator) by using its onboard propulsion
- During the final stages of its orbit raising operations, the two solar arrays and the antenna reflectors of GSAT-30 will be
- Following this, the satellite will be put in its final orbital .    The satellite will be operational after the successful completion of all in-orbit tests.
Utility of the satellite
- GSAT-30 will provide DTH Television Services, connectivity to VSATs for ATM, Stock-exchange, Television unlinking and Teleport Services, Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) and e-governance applications.
- The satellite will also be used for bulk data transfer for a host of an emerging telecommunication
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Exercise âSahyog-Kaijinâ
Mains level: NA
Exercise âSahyog-Kaijinâ
- Indian and Japanese coast guards participated in a joint exercise âSahyog-Kaijinâ on January 16.
- The aim behind âSahyog-Kaijinâ is to strengthen the bond between the two countries.
- One ship of the Japanese Coast Guard and four ships and an aircraft of the Indian Coast Guard participated in the joint exercise.
- The drill is a five-day event.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Taal Volcano
Mains level: Volcanism and its impact
In the Philippines, a volcano called Taal on the island of Luzon; 50 km from Manila has recently erupted.
Taal Volcano
- Taal is classified as a âcomplexâ volcano. Taal has 47 craters and four maars (a broad shallow crater).
- It is situated at the boundaries of two tectonic plates â the Philippines Sea Plate and the Eurasian plate â it is particularly susceptible to earthquakes and volcanism.
- A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano, is defined as one that consists of a complex of two or more vents, or a volcano that has an associated volcanic dome, either in its crater or on its flanks.
- Examples include Vesuvius, besides Taal.
- The Taal volcano does not rise from the ground as a distinct, singular dome but consists of multiple stratovolcanoes (volcanoes susceptible to explosive eruptions), conical hills and craters of all shapes and sizes.
Threats posed
- Taalâs closeness to Manila puts lives at stake. Manila is a few tens of kilometres away with a population of over 10 million.
- The volcano is currently at alert level 4, which means that a âhazardous eruptionâ could be imminent within a few hours to a few days.
- Hazardous eruptions are characterised by intense unrest, continuing seismic swarms and low-frequency earthquakes.
Earlier records of eruption
- Taal has erupted more than 30 times in the last few centuries. Its last eruption was on October 3, 1977.
- An eruption in 1965 was considered particularly catastrophic, marked by the falling of rock fragments and ashfall.
- Before that, there was a âvery violentâ eruption in 1911 from the main crater. The 1911 eruption lasted for three days, while one in 1754 lasted for seven months.
- Because it is a complex volcano with various features, the kinds of eruption too have been varied. An eruption can send lava flowing through the ground, or cause a threat through ash in the air.
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