Smallest smoking volcano

That would be the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. Ron Gluckman describes it thus: “In the Philippines, there is a crater containing a lake. In the lake is an island, topped by another mountain, which also has a crater that contains yet another lake. In the midst of its warm waters is another island. And here stands Taal, one of the world's smallest, but most dangerous volcanoes.” It honestly sounds like a scenario from a fantasy book! There are over a thousand people on the island and in the past, they would all be wiped out when the volcano blows. But these days they have early warning systems, so they only have a few casualties. Click here for a Google Earth view of the volcano. Taal is a typical “caldera” volcano, caldera being the Spanish word for cauldron, so it is a basin-shaped volcanic depression. It is also a Stratovolcano: A volcano composed of both lava flows and pyroclastic material. The lake is a bout 18 kilometres in diameter and in its centre is Volcano Island, also with a lake in its centre. The capital, Manila is only about 50 kilometres away. What is interesting is that volcanoes can have more than one crater, or conduits (vents). These can issue volcanic material anywhere in the vicinity of the volcano. It does not have to be at the conical peak which we all call the “volcano”. In ancient times, people used to think that gods live inside volcanoes, and to appease them, they would sacrifice members of the society ever so often. They would literally be thrown into the crater, preferably into molten lava. Crazy. Luckily, we all know today that volcanoes are merely the “plumbing works” of the earth. Or think of it as giant zits. (Haha!) In certain places people even live on crater floors! One such example town called Rabau, Papua New Guinea is surrounded by six volcanoes. Here is the Google Earth link. Both these volcanoes have had activity in early October 2006.
You will notice the addition to the sidebar on the right called “Current Volcanic Eruptions”, which lists 5 of the most currently active volcanoes. Please click on any of them for more info about that specific volcano. From time to time, I will bring you something about them. Also, please let me know if you have any interesting info on volcanoes. (Active or not).
For more info on volcanoes, checkout my earlier post: Volcanoes.