9600957 Williams This is a 24 month award proposed by Dr. Stanley Williams, Arizona State University and Dr. Raymundo Punongbayan, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. This project is to understand the eruption that produced the extensive Scoria Flow (SFL) at Taal Volcano, the Philippines. It requests funds for travel for the P.I. and his graduate student, and the field cost to collect sediment samples from Taal Volcano, which is located in Batangas Province, southern Luzon Island, Philippines. This project will collect information on geological, petrologic and geochemical characteristics of Scoria flow. This is an important project involving at one of the world's more dangerous volcanoes. The data collected will lead to a better understanding of whether the eruption in this region is a gradual build up or a short, instantaneous one. Results are important for evaluating and assessing the extended natural hazards from future volcano eruptions in this region.