Introduction

Mount Pinatubo is an active volcano on the Philippine island of Luzon. Until relatively recently it was classified as a dormant volcano as it had not erupted for five hundred years. It was partially eroded and covered with lush forest. However in June 1991 it erupted violently with huge effects on the Aeta (the people who inhabit the island of Luzon, who fled to the mountains when the Spanish invaded in 1565) and the whole world. The successful predictions of the eruptions avoided a huge death toll as tens of thousands of people were evacuated with swift accuracy. Unfortunately thousands of homes were destroyed by pyroclastic flows, ash deposits, and later lahars caused by rainwater remobilising earlier volcanic deposits.

Mt. Pinatubo erupting on 15th June 1991.