VOLCANOES

18 Active volcanoes

The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7100 islands. Most of these islands are of volcanic origin. 

There are 37 volcanoes in the Philippines, of which 18 are still active volcanoes. It means that an eruption occurred in the last decennia and  that a new eruption can be expected in the future. All the other volcanoes are 'sleeping'  or 'dead' volcanoes. Scientists think that an eruption of these volcanoes is unlikely. The most known volcanoes in the Philippines areMount Pinatubo, Mount Mayon and the  Taal   volcano. They are all located on the Northern island Luzon.

The most active volcano

 Mount Mayon  is the most active volcano in the Philippines. Since 1616 there were 47 eruptions.

From 1616 until 2002 at least 1300 people died and thousands of people got homeless as a result of all the eruptions. The most recent eruptions were in 1947, 1984 and 1993. In 1993 the activity started with explosions. Half an hour later, flows of lava (molten rock) and  pyroclastic flows(flows with mixtures of hot, dry rock fragments and hot gases.

They flows may result from the explosive eruption of molten or solid rock fragments, or both) came out of the crater in the top of the volcano. It killed 68 people and 60.000 people had to be evacuated.