Mount Mayon, also known as the
Mayon Volcano, is an active stratovolcano with a small central summit crater on
the island of Luzon in the island of Luzon in Philippines. The Philippines,
which has a population of 103,775,002, became an independent state in 1946,
after gaining its sovereignty from Spain. The Mount Mayon is renowned for its
almost symmetric conical shape. Mayon is considered to have the world's most
perfectly formed cone due to its symmetry. It was formed through layers of
pyroclastic and lava flows from past eruptions and erosion. Mayon is a part of
the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Mayon, in north-eastern Albay
province, is the most active volcano in the Philippines having erupted about 50
times in the last 500 years. The distinctiveness of Mayon volcano is
geographically shared by the eight cities and municipalities which meet at the
cone’s summit, dividing the cone like slices of a pie when viewed from above.
There are many festivals and rituals are associated with the volcano and its
landscape. The most destructive eruption of Mayon occurred on in Feb 1, 1814. Lava was flowed belched dark ash 30ft in depth
and eventually bombarded the town of Cagsawa 1200 locals perished with tephra
that buried it.
Trees burned, and rivers damaged
and proximate areas were devastated by the eruption. Moreover, another massive
eruption recorded in 1881. Everyone had to leave their homes, rice, vegetables
and poultry farms within the danger zone. When Mayon underwent a strong volcano
had poured out, for five months continuously, a stream of lava on the Legaspi
side from the very summit. The viscid mass bubbled quietly but grandly, and
overran the border of the crater, descending several hundred feet in a glowing
wave, like red-hot iron. An eruption in 1993 caused 79 deaths. And subsequent
eruptions in 2000, 2006, 2009, 2014, and 2018 forced tens of thousands of
people in nearby villages to evacuate.
The Mayon Volcano is located on
the convergent boundary where the Philippine Sea Plate is driven under the
Philippine Mobile Belt. The lighter continental plate floats over top of the
oceanic plate. It is forcing it down into the Earth's mantle, and allowing
magma to well up from the Earth’s interior. The magma exits through weaknesses
in the continental crust, one of which is Mount Mayon. The locals refers the
volcano being named after the great princess-heroine Daragang Magayon
The active volcano has managed to
retain its perfect cone shape without suffering any major slides or collapse. The
volcano is the centerpiece of the Albay Biosphere Reserve, declared by UNESCO
in 2016. The main landmark is rising 2462 meters above the Albay Gulf. It has very steep upper slopes averaging 35
to 40 degrees capped by a small summit crater. Due to its perfect symmetric
cone, the mountain was declared a national park and a protected landscape on
July 20, 1938.
It was also reclassified a Natural Park and
renamed as the Mayon Volcano Natural Park in 2000. Mount Mayon is the most
active volcano in the Philippines. Hence its activity is regularly monitored by
PHIVOLCS from their provincial headquarters on Ligñon Hill, about 12KM SSE from
the summit. Three telemetric units are installed on Mayon's slopes, which relay
information to the seven seismometers in different locations around the volcano
and back to the Ligñon Hill observatory and the PHIVOLCS central headquarters. Despite
of all facts, Mount Mayon is a popular destination for climbers and tourists.
Source: CP
Source: CP
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