<h5>Can you imagine if an active volcano was suddenly discovered in your city?</h5>  <p>There you are, going to school, hanging out with friends and visiting your favourite cool spots around your city. Unknown to you, there’s a deep and gigantic area of magma in a dormant volcano near you. It could erupt today or 50 years from now. No one knows!</p>
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<p>That’s exactly what happened in Taiwan, a tiny island country off the coast of China. In North Taiwan, there are two cities - Taipei (the capital of Taiwan) and New Taipei. Between the border of these two cities lies a group of volcanoes (20 in total!) called the Tatun Volcano Group (TVG).</p>
<p>Even though steam blows out of the cracks of these volcanoes and pools of cloudy water bubble above it like boiling water, no one realised that this meant that TVG contained active volcanoes. After all, it has never, in human history, erupted. They just thought the steam and bubbles meant it was active millions of years ago.
</p> <h5>How did they realise it was a group of active volcanoes?</h5>  <p>In 2017, a scientist named Lin Cheng-Horng, who has been studying volcanoes for a long time, discovered evidence of a gigantic magma chamber below Taipei. Alarmed by his discovery, the Government of Taiwan ordered more scientists to get on the job and find out what was really going on.</p>
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What they discovered was that the TVG has been active this entire time!
</p> <h5>What are the people going to do if the TVG erupts?</h5>  <p>As you can imagine, the Taiwanese people were spooked. TVG is close to two major cities in Taiwan and about six million people live in them. These cities would be wiped out if TVG erupted.</p>
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<p>The Government has installed sophisticated technological devices all around the mountains. Scientists are monitoring these devices diligently. If there’s even a hint that an explosion is about to happen, warning signals will be heard all over the cities and everyone will be evacuated.</p>
<p>The Government has also been conducting volcano drills to teach people how to evacuate safely and quickly.
</p> <h5>What has happened in the past when volcanoes erupted close to a city?</h5>  <p>About 2000 years ago, Pompeii was a prosperous and advanced city in what is now southern Italy. It lay close to Mount Vesuvius, the only active volcano in mainland Europe. One day, without warning, it suddenly erupted. 
Overnight the city was blanketed in ash. Those of its citizens who hadn’t escaped in time were killed. Mount Vesuvius has erupted many times since Pompeii and scientists predict it’s due for another explosion soon.</p>
<p>Fortunately, nowadays scientists have the technology to predict when a volcano is likely to erupt. It’s not always accurate, but it helps prevent a catastrophe like Pompeii.</p>
<p>Here’s hoping the TVG keeps on slumbering, like it has been for the past millions of years, and doesn’t get in a mood to erupt anytime soon.
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Two cities in Taiwan discovered that the volcano that lies between them is not as dead as they thought. It’s active and can erupt at any time. Let’s learn more.

Active Volcano Discovered Kilometres Away From Taipei

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Active Volcano Discovered Kilometres Away From Taipei

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