September 24, 1716 Tsunami: Taal, Luzon Island, Philippines

1716, September 24, about 6 o'clock in the evening. A great number of detonations were heard in the air, and shortly after it became plain that the volcano in Lake Bombon had burst on its southeastern side, which faces Lipa, so that the whole point called Calauit appeared to be on fire. Later on the eruption seemed to spread into the lake, in the direction of Mount Macolod, which rises opposite the volcano on the southeastern shore of the lake. Great masses of smoke, water, and ashes rushed out of the lake, high up into the air, looking like towers. Simultaneously there was a great commotion in the earth which stirred up the water in the lake, forming immense waves which lashed the shores as though a violent typhoon were raging. Their fury was such that in front of the Convento of Taal, and in other places of the beach, a strip of more than 10 brazas [16.7 meters] in width was engulfed by the water, and the church was endangered. On the following days, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, things continued in the same way, but by Sunday all the combustible material appears to have been consumed. This eruption killed all the fishes, large and small, the waves casting them ashore in a state as if they had been cooked, since the water had been heated to a degree that it appeared to have been taken from a boiling caldron. There was an all-pervading, pestilential stench of sulphur which greatly molested the inhabitants of the towns surrounding the lake. Sunday morning the sun broke through, but later torrential rains fell with thunder and lightning, some of the latter striking and the whole causing the greatest terror. Finally, however, the weather cleared, and of the whole tragedy there remained no other signs than the stench of sulphur and of the great quantity of dead fish cast upon the beach by the waves. (reference #2340)