August 12, 1749 Tsunami: Taal, Luzon Island, Philippines

On August 11, 1749, began one of the most violent outbursts of Taal on record. It has been described by Fr. Buencuchillo, 0.S.A., an eye-witness, since he was at the

time parish-priest of Sala. During the night of that day the top of the mountain burst out with tremendous force from the same crater which since ancient times used to emit fire and rocks. The course of events was this:

...I noticed that also from the water there arose enormous columns of sand and ashes, which ascended in the shape of pyramids to marvelous heights and then fell back into the lake like illuminated fountains.

Some of the pyramids surged toward north, others toward east, the sight lasting until 9 o'clock of the morning. At the latter hour there was felt a furious earthquake which left nothing moveable in

its place within the convento. This forced me to flee to higher ground, especially as I noticed that some of the horrid pyramids shooting forth from the water were coming toward the town and place where we were. When they reached that part of the lake's shore which was known as "tierra destruida" [waste land?], they ruined that tract entirely, and with a second earthquake, not less fierce than the one

shortly preceding, it sank into the lake. To this very day, the branches of the trees buried beneath the water can be seen from the distance.

During these terrible convulsions of the earth fissures opened in the ground amid horrifying roars, said fissures extending from the northern and northeastern beach of the lake as far as the neighborhood of the town of Calamba. Here as well as elsewhere, the whole shore of Lake Bombon has been disturbed. The entire territory of Sala and part of that of Tanauan have been rendered practically uninhabitable-the water courses have been altered, former springs have ceased to flow and new ones made their appearance, the whole country is traversed by fissures, and extensive subsidences have occurred in many places.

Sala and its surroundings to the northeast of the lake, as well as, a portion of the territory of Tanauan, which is north of it, were so thoroughly ruined and, consequently, depopulated that within the same year, 1749, the former was united with the latter town.

(above from reference #2340)

[...]the origin of the waves observed during the 1749 eruption remains unclear. This violent phreatomagmatic eruption (VEI 4) lasted three months and severely impacted the northern and northeastern shores of the lake (Delos Reyes et al. 2018). One earthquake led to land subsidence in the northeastern part of the caldera (near Tanauan). Explosions were located in the main crater of Taal Island (Fig. 1), with a possible extension to coastal or sublacustrine vents near the northeastern point of the island. (reference#12533)