Highest Mountains in Philippines

Geology

Mount Apo is a flat-topped, 2,954 m (9,692 ft) (above sea level) high stratovolcano with three peaks. It is the highest peak of the Philippines. The southwest peak has the highest elevation and is topped by a 200 m (656 ft) wide crater that contains a small lake.

The volcanic history of Mount Apo is poorly known but eruptions have produced andesitic-to-dacitic lava. A line of solfataras extend from the southeast flank at an elevation of 2,400 m (7,874 ft) to the summit. Mount Apo is not known to have had historical eruptions, and was incorrectly attributed to be the source volcano of the 1641 eruption of Mount Melibengoy, also in Mindanao.

Climate

The climate at the summit of Mount Apo is alpine (Köppen ETH) as its mean temperature does not exceed 10 °C or 50 °F in any month. It falls under the Type IV climate under the modified corona's classification wherein rainfall is uniformly distributed throughout the year. Mean monthly temperature ranges from a low 6.9 °C (44.4 °F) during January to 8.9 °C (48.0 °F) during April. Monthly relative humidity ranges from 78% during March and April and 82% during June and July. Minima reach 2.4 °C (36.3 °F) in January and February.

In late March–April 2016, due to the extreme effects of El Niño caused by climate change, massive patches of forest fires and bushfires appeared on the slopes of the mountain, causing hikers on the mountain to halt their ascent.

Geography

Mount Pulag stands at 2,928 metres (9,606 ft) high. The peak of the mountain is located in the Municipality of Kabayan Province of Benguet.

The climate at the summit of Mount Pulag is subpolar oceanic (Köppen Cwc), bordering a subtropical highland (Köppen Cwb) climate, as its summer mean temperatures only slightly exceed 10 degrees Celsius. Rainfall on the mountain averages 4,489 millimetres (176.7 in) yearly with August being the wettest month with an average rainfall of 1,135 millimetres (44.7 in).

Snow has never fallen on its top, as snow is impossible due to lack of elevation and subzero temperatures. However, there are hailstorms that look like snow. Frost is common on the mountain due to the low temperature during those months.

History

The Ibaloi people of Benguet mummify their dead and house them in caverns in the mountain. The Kabayan mummy burial caves, one of the main attraction of the site, are considered Philippine national cultural treasures under Presidential Decree No. 432.

Mt. Pulag was proclaimed a national park through Presidential Proclamation No. 75 signed by President Corazon Aquino on February 20, 1987, covering an area of 11,550 hectares (28,500 acres). It is part of the Cordillera Biogeographic Zone and is a National Integrated Protected Areas Programme (NIPAP) site.

The national park is inhabited by different ethnic groups such as the Ibalois, Kalanguya, Kankana-eys, Karao, and Ifugaos.

History

The mountain was also the location of a possible World War II Japanese holdout. Isao Miyazawa found evidence that his comrade Captain Fumio Nakahara was living there in 1957. Another search in 1977 was called off due to Miyazawa contracting malaria. In 1980, Miyazawa found Nakahara's hut, and the natives talked to him extensively about the foreigner. However, Nakahara himself has never been spotted.

Geography

The volcano is about 87 kilometers (54 mi) northwest of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Near Mount Pinatubo are former military bases that were maintained by the United States. The U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay was 37 kilometers (23 mi) south of Pinatubo, and the extent of Clark Air Base was just 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) east of the volcano's summit. The volcano is near to about 6 million people.

History

Even before the 1991 eruption, Mount Pinatubo had little topographic prominence: it was 1,745 m (5,725 ft) above sea level, only about 600 m (2,000 ft) above nearby plains, and only about 200 m (660 ft) higher than surrounding peaks, which largely obscured it from view. It is part of a chain of volcanoes which lie along the western side of the island of Luzon called the Zambales Mountains.

Pinatubo belongs to the Cabusilan sub-range of the Zambales Mountains, which consists of Mount Cuadrado, Mount Negron, Mount Mataba and Mount Pinatubo. They are subduction volcanoes, formed by the Eurasian plate sliding under the Philippine Mobile Belt along the Manila Trench to the west.

Cultural history

The word pinatubo could mean "fertile place where one can make crops grow", or could mean "made to grow", in Sambal and Tagalog, which may suggest a knowledge of its previous eruption in about 1500 AD. There is a local oral tradition suggestive of a folk memory of earlier large eruptions. An ancient legend tells of Bacobaco, a terrible spirit of the sea, who could metamorphose into a huge turtle and throw fire from his mouth. In the legend, when being chased by the spirit hunters, Bacobaco flees to the mountain and digs a great hole in its summit showering the surrounding land with rock, mud, dust and fire for three days; howling so loudly that the earth shakes.

Geography

Taal Volcano is part of a chain of volcanoes lining the western edge of the island of Luzon. They were formed by the subduction of the Eurasian Plate underneath the Philippine Mobile Belt. Taal Lake lies within a 25–30 km (16–19 mi) caldera formed by explosive eruptions between less than 670 ka (Sampaga Formation) and less than 3 ka to 1000CE (Buco Formation). Each of these eruptions created extensive ignimbrite deposits reaching as far away as present-day Manila.

Taal Volcano is primarily located in the province of Batangas however, the northern caldera rim and the northern segment of its massive ignimbrite shield is located on Tagaytay which is in Cavite.

Eruptive history

The prehistoric eruptions of Taal were either large caldera forming events or minor eruptions similar to what is observed today. The major eruptions helped create the present Taal Lake, with a large eruption termed "The Pasong Fluidal Juvenile Bomb-Rich Ignimbrite Formation" ejecting 144 km3 (35 cu mi) of material, shaping the immediate landscape with pyroclastic flows and thick ash deposits across southern Luzon. Prehistoric eruptions left significant deposits of pumice and pyroclastic material across southern Luzon, with thicknesses up to 45-meter (148-foot) in some areas, impacting vast regions.