Mount Pinatubo

Trip Start Jun 08, 2013
Trip End Aug 05, 2013

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Flag of Philippines  , Cordillera Administrative Regi,
Tuesday, June 18, 2013

On Saturday, Kyle and I went on a trek to what is left of Mt Pinatubo, a volcano about 30 kilometers from my dad's house that erupted in 1991. Pinatubo, in Tagalog, means "to make grow", which is ironic since it's eruption was the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, killing every "growing" thing the area. I wrote in an earlier post that it is now inactive - wrong! However it only erupts about every 600 years, so it's safe for a while.

Even though the more distant surrounding areas of Pinatubo are back to life and densely populated again, the 20 or so kilometer radius around the volcano feels like another world. It is a restricted area, and the only people who are allowed to live there are Aeta, indigenous folks that have lived there for ages. Even they are sparsely scattered through the area. Weirdly enough, the U.S. and Philippine Air Forces also use the area for bombing practice - I'm betting the locals don't love that.

The closer we drove to the volcano (this was a lazy man's "trek", by the way - they drove us 20 kilometers and we hiked one kilometer to the crater lake), the more barren the landscape became. I tried to order the photos in a way that you can see the progression - the beginning of the drive was pretty green, with plenty of trees, and then it started to look like the freakin moon. All of the mountains and hills in the pictures are actually made of lahar (volcanic ash and rock)- the area was so completely destroyed and covered in lahar that very little of the original earth is visible. In fact, as we were approaching the crater lake, we kept asking our driver which mountain was Pinatubo, to which he would respond vaguely, pointing to a general area with tons of peaks. Finally, we realized that he was so vague about it because what used to be Pinatubo no longer exists - it destroyed itself in the explosion. Pinatubo now consists of the crater lake, surrounded by peaks of lahar.

Streams fed by the crater lake run down the slopes leading to the crater, and have made the slopes green and beautiful again, although our guide told us that animals have just recently come back to live in the area. The lake itself is fed by cold springs, which actually act as a kind of cooling system for the volcano, which is why it doesn't erupt more often. Our guide told us that scientists have measured the depth in the middle of the lake up to 250 meters, at which point their measuring tools no longer work because it gets so hot down there. So no one is sure how deep it is - I wonder if it goes all the way down to the core of the earth? That's what volcanoes do, right?


Anyways, the pictures can probably do more justice to this place than my descriptions, so enjoy!
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Cuyler mama on

So interesting, Hens, both text and images.

Cuyler mama on

loving the photo-doc of your trip, Hens.

Cuyler mama on

I need a badass jeep. Good for my image at school.

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