earth science

Mayon

Mayon is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mayon rather than just read about it. In short: Mayon (Central Bikol: Bulkan Mayon; Tagalog: Bulkang Mayon, IPA: [mɐˈjɔn]), also known as Mount Mayon and Mayon Volcano, is an active stratovolcano in the province of Albay in Bicol, Philippines. A popular tourist destination, it is renowned for its "perfect cone" owing to its symmetric conical shape, and is regarded as sacred in Philippine mythology.

Key takeaways

Mayon belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mayon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mayon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mayon (Central Bikol: Bulkan Mayon; Tagalog: Bulkang Mayon, IPA: [mɐˈjɔn]), also known as Mount Mayon and Mayon Volcano, is an active stratovolcano in the province of Albay in Bicol, Philippines. A popular tourist destination, it is renowned for its "perfect cone" owing to its symmetric conical shape, and is regarded as sacred in Philippine mythology. The volcano with its surrounding landscape was declared a national park on July 20, 1938, the first in the nation. It was reclassified as a natural park and renamed the Mayon Volcano Natural Park in 2000. It is the centerpiece of the Albay Biosphere Reserve as declared by UNESCO in 2016, and is currently being nominated as a World Heritage Site. Mayon is the most active volcano in the Philippines, and its activity is regularly monitored by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) from their provincial headquarters on Ligñon Hill, about 12 km (7.5 mi) from the summit.

Geography

Mayon is the main landmark and highest point of the province of Albay and the whole Bicol Region in the Philippines, rising 2,463 m (8,081 ft) from the shores of Albay Gulf about 10 km (6.2 mi) away. The volcano is geographically shared by the eight cities and municipalities of Legazpi, Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan, Ligao, Tabaco, Malilipot, and Santo Domingo (clockwise from Legazpi), which divide the cone like slices of a pie when viewing a map of their political boundaries. A number of cinder cones surround the volcano, for example Ligñon Hill to the south east and Paulog Cinder Cone to the west.

Geology Mayon is a classic stratovolcano with a small central summit crater. It is one of the world's most symmetrical volcanic cones. The concave profile, a hyperbolic sine curve of the volcano is due to the balance between erosion and eruption, defined by the angle of repose of ash. The steepest upper slopes of the volcano reach an average slope gradient of 75%, while the lower foot slope is only an average of 3%. The volcanic crater is about 250 m (820 ft) in diameter. At least 85 lava flows have been identified, and consist mainly of lava augite-hypersthene-andesite, generally fed from the crater. Pyroclastic flows, characterized as a St. Vincent nuee' ardente, leave behind block and ash deposits, and breadcrust bombs in an ash and lapilli matrix. The farthest flow reached 8.5 km (5.3 mi) along Fidel Surtida, Santo Domingo. Mayon lahars were formed by rainstorms during eruptions, or by torrential rain afterwards. Averaging 230 m (750 ft) in height and 710 m (2,330 ft) in diameter, 7 cinder cones are found on the southern and southwestern lower slopes. Composed of olivine-augite basalt, these cones have an angle of repose of 34%, with Ligñon Hill and Paulog Cinder Cone having been sampled. Like other volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean, Mayon is a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. It is on the southeast side of Luzon. The Bicol Arc is one of 7 oceanic trench subduction zones defining the Philippine Mobile Belt. Volcanism in the Bicol Arc is related to the westward subduction of the Philippine Plate along the Philippine Trench. The 12 active and inactive volcanoes within the arc include the Mayon Volcano, Mount Bulusan, Mount Isarog, Mount Iriga, Malinao Volcano, and Mount Masaraga. In general, these are calc-alkali basalts, basaltic andesites, and andesites. Samples from Ligñon Hill and Paulog Cinder Cone are basalt or tachybasalt, with one basaltic trachyandesite and while the main edithice is mainly basaltic andesite, samples of the stratovolcano's eruptives cover most of the sodium potassium oxide composition range of andesite basalts including trachydacite, but not trachyte.

Ecology In August 2021, soils from Mayon have been found containing bacterial species with potential antibiotic and anti-cancer properties. Whole-genome sequencing subsequently confirmed a novel species within Streptomyces and studies showed activity against the human pathogens Salmonella enterica, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Fusarium, as well as inhibiting HCT116 cells from a human colorectal cancer cell line. Japanese studies have suggested that the extremely thermophilic Calditerricola bacteria is found in volcanic ash samples from both Mayon and Mount Sakurajima in Japan.

Recorded eruptions Mayon is the most active volcano in the Philippines, erupting over 52 times in the past 500 years. Historical observations accounted its first eruption in 1616. The first eruption for which an extended account exists was the six-day event of July 20, 1766. The earliest eruption dated by radiocarbon methods was in 3100 BCE ± 300 years.

1814 eruption

Its most destructive recorded eruption occurred on February 1, 1814 (VEI=4). Lava flowed but less than the 1766 eruption. The volcano belched dark ash and eventually bombarded the town of Cagsawa with tephra that buried it. Trees burned, and rivers were certainly damaged. Proximate areas were also devastated by the eruption, with ash accumulating to 9 m (30 ft) in depth. In Cagsawa town, about 1,200 locals perished in what is considered to be the most lethal eruption in Mayon's history according to PHIVOLCS. The 1814 eruption is believed to have contributed to the accumulation of atmospheric ash together with the catastrophic 1815 eruption of other volcanoes like Indonesia's Mount Tambora, leading to the Year Without a Summer in 1816.

1881–1882 eruption From July 6, 1881, until approximately August 1882, Mayon underwent a strong (VEI=3) eruption. Samuel Kneeland, a naturalist, professor and geologist, personally observed the volcanic activity on Christmas Day, 1881, about five months after the start of the activity:

At the date of my visit, the 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. Gradually, fading as the upper surface cooled, it changed to a thousand sparkling rills among the crevices, and, as it passed beyond the line of complete vision behind the woods near the base, the fires twinkled like stars or the scintillations of a dying conflagration. More than half of the mountain height was thus illuminated.

1897 eruption

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mayon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mayon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mayon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mayon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mayon

In research: Mayon appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mayon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mayon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 19th-century volcanic events, 2018 natural disasters, 20th-century volcanic events, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mayon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mayon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mayon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mayon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mayon in simple terms?

Why does Mayon matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mayon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mayon.