Mount Pinatubo

Mount Pinatubo (Sambal: Bakil nin Pinatubu; Kapampangan: Bunduk/Bulkan ning Pinatubu,
Bunduk ning Apu Malyari; Pangasinan: Palandey/Bulkan na Pinatubu; Ilokano: Bantay Pinatubo;
Tagalog: Bundok/Bulkang Pinatubo) is an active stratovolcano in the Zambales Mountains,
located on the tripoint boundary of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga,
all in Central Luzon on the northern island of Luzon. Its eruptive history was unknown to most
before the pre-eruption volcanic activities of 1991, just before June. Pinatubo was heavily
eroded, inconspicuous and obscured from view. It was covered with dense forests which
supported a population of several thousand indigenous Aetas.

The volcano's Ultra Plinian eruption on June 15, 1991, produced the second-largest terrestrial
eruption of the 20th century after the 1912 eruption of Novarupta in the Alaska Peninsula.
Complicating the eruption was the arrival of Typhoon Yunya (Diding), bringing a lethal messy
mix of ash and rain to towns and cities surrounding the volcano. Predictions at the onset of the
climactic eruption led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the surrounding
areas, saving many lives. Surrounding areas were severely damaged by pyroclastic surges, ash
falls, and subsequently, by the flooding lahars caused by rainwater re-mobilizing earlier volcanic
deposits. This caused extensive destruction to infrastructure and changed river systems for
years after the eruption.

The effects of the eruption were felt worldwide. It ejected roughly 10,000,000,000 tonnes
(1.1×1010 short tons) or 10 km3 (2.4 cu mi) of magma, and 20,000,000 tonnes (22,000,000
short tons) of SO
2, bringing vast quantities of minerals and toxic metals to the surface environment. It injected
more particulate into the stratosphere than any eruption since Krakatoa in 1883. Over the
following months, the aerosols formed a global layer of sulfuric acid haze. Global temperatures
dropped by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) in the years 1991–93, and ozone depletion temporarily
increased substantially.

History
Mount Pinatubo's summit before the 1991 eruption 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 Mt.
Cuadrado, Mt. Negron, Mt. Mataba and Mt. Pinatubo. They are subduction volcanoes, formed
by the Eurasian Plate sliding under the Philippine Mobile Belt along the Manila Trench to the
west. Mount Pinatubo and the other volcanoes on this volcanic belt arise due to magmatic
occlusion from this subduction plate boundary.
Pinatubo is flanked on the west by the Zambales Ophiolite Complex, which is an easterly-
dipping section of Eocene oceanic crust uplifted during the late Oligocene. The Tarlac
Formation north, east and southeast of Pinatubo consists of marine, nonmarine and
volcanoclastic sediments formed in the late Miocene and Pliocene.

The most recent study of Mount Pinatubo before the activities of 1991 was the overall
geological study in 1983 and 1984 made by F. G. Delfin for the Philippine National Oil Company
as part of the surface investigations of the area before exploratory drilling and well testing for
geothermal energy sources in 1988 to 1990. He recognized two life histories of the mountain,
which he classified as "ancestral" and "modern" Pinatubo.

Modern Pinatubo
 c. 33,000 BC: After a long period of dormancy, Modern Pinatubo was born in Ancestral
Pinatubo's cataclysmic and most explosive eruptions, estimated to be five times larger
than the June 1991 eruption. It deposited all around the volcano up to
25 km3 (6.0 cu mi) of pyroclastic surge material up to 100 metres (330 ft) thick. The total
volume of volcanic material ejected during the eruptions is unknown. The removal of so
much material from the underlying magma chamber resulted in the Tayawan caldera.
The violent eruptive period started by the eruption is referred to by Delfin as the Inararo
Eruptive Period, named after a village that was destroyed in the 1991 eruption.
Later eruptions of modern Pinatubo occurred episodically and lasted for periods much shorter
than the repose intervals between them. Subsequent eruptions and eruptive period occurred
about:
 c. 15,000 BC (Sacobia Eruptive Period)
 c. 7000 BC (Pasbul Eruptive Period). Its eruptions were as energetic, if not as voluminous
as the Inararo eruptions.
 c. 4000–3000 BC (Crow Valley Eruptive Period). This and the Mara-unot period's
eruptions were smaller than the Inararo eruptions but about 2 to 3 times as big as that
of 1991 based on the pyroclastic flow runout distances and depths of valley filling.
 c. 1900–300 BC (Maraunot Eruptive Period)
 c. AD 1500 (Buag Eruptive Period). Its eruptions were roughly the same size as those of
1991.
Each of these eruptions seems to have been very large, ejecting more than 10 km³ of material
and covering large parts of the surrounding areas with pyroclastic flow deposits. Some eruptive
periods have lasted decades and perhaps as much as several centuries and might appear to
include multiple large explosive eruptions.
The maximum size of eruptions in each eruptive period though has been getting smaller
through the more than 35,000-year history of modern Pinatubo, but this might be an artifact of
erosion and burial of older deposits. The oldest eruption of modern Pinatubo, Inararo, was also
its largest.
The 1991 eruption was among the smallest documented in its geologic record.
The volcano has never grown very large between eruptions, because it produces mostly
unwelded, easily erodible deposits and periodically destroys the viscous domes that fill its
vents. After the Buag eruption (c. 1500 AD), the volcano lay dormant, its slopes becoming
completely covered in dense rainforest and eroded into gullies and ravines. The c. 500-year
repose though between the Buag and present eruptive periods is among the shorter repose
periods recognized in its geologic history.

Possible precursor in 1990

On July 16, 1990, the major 1990 Luzon earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck northern Central
Luzon and the Cordilleras. This was the largest earthquake recorded in 1990, comparable in size
to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Its epicenter was in
the municipality of Rizal, Nueva Ecija, about 100 km northeast of Pinatubo, and faulted
northwest-southeast through three provinces.
It also followed the Philippine Fault System west as far as Baguio City, which was devastated,
and is located about 80 kilometres (50 mi) north-northeast of Pinatubo, leading volcanologists
to speculate that it might ultimately have triggered the 1991 eruption, although this is
impossible to prove conclusively. Two weeks after the earthquake, local residents
reported steam coming from the volcano, but scientists who visited there in response found
only small rockslides rather than any pre-eruptive activity.