Monday, September 10, 2007


Mayon Volcano is an active volcano in the Philippines on the island of Luzon, in the province of Albay in the Bicol Region. Its almost perfectly-shaped cone is considered by some to be the Philippine equivalent of Mount Fuji in Japan. The volcano is situated 15 kilometres northwest of Legazpi City.
Mayon is classified by volcanologists as a stratovolcano (composite volcano). Its symmetric cone was formed through alternate pyroclastic and lava flows. Mayon is the most active volcano in the country, having erupted over 50 times in the past 400 years. It is located between the Eurasian and the Philippine Plate, at a convergent plate boundary: where a continental plate meets an oceanic plate, the lighter continental plate overrides the oceanic plate, forcing it down; magma is formed where the rock melts. Like other volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean, Mayon is a part of the "Pacific Ring of Fire".

Mayon VolcanoMayon Volcano Eruptions

July 18, 2006: The number and size of incandescent rockfalls from the active lava dome, as well as sulfur oxide emissions, are increasing, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, which maintains that pyroclastic flows or an explosive eruption could occur any time now.
August 7, 2006: The Philippine government ordered the evacuation of about 20,000 people living near the volcano, stating that an eruption was feared soon

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