Volcanoes in the Neighborhood …

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This blog is especially for Alexis, our 4-year old granddaughter who told us she was learning about volcanoes. We told her we would send some pictures of volcanoes that are in our country, the Philippines. Everyone is welcome to see it, but this blog is especially for Alexis

There is a big volcano named Mayon (my-OWN). Some people say it is the most beautiful volcano in the world. That is because it is so nicely shaped like a big cone. It looks really pretty against the blue sky. Usually is nice and quiet, almost like it is asleep. It's high up into the clouds. Sometimes the clouds look like smoke, but they are just clouds hugging the tops of the volcano. We haven't been to this volcano, but we did fly over it one day when we were in an airplane.

But years ago, probably 40 or more, it started to wake up. (That was even before your daddy was born.) Smoke started coming out of the top. The magma beneath was beginning to rise.

The smoke began to bellow out and the fire began to blaze at the top. The city was nearby and they could see that Mayon had awakened. Something big was going to happen.

Fire started to come out of the cone and hot lava began to flow down the sides of the volcano. Smoke was in the air everywhere.

The police came and told everyone to leave before the big eruption came.

More smoke came out. The wind began to blow the smoke across the country side.

It wasn’t long until the whole mountain was covered with thick smoke and grey ash which began to fall on the villages.

At night the fire was blazing from the top and the red-hot lava ran down the sides of the volcano.

The villages close by were in danger and the people had to hurry to leave. Some climbed into boats to get away from the land.

More and more fire and lava. More and more ash. It lasted for many days.

But … it finally fell asleep again. It is still sleeping, but every once in a while it give a cough and out comes a whiff of smoke. So by that you can tell it will wake up again some day, and it will fill the sky with smoke and fire. But don’t you worry about us. We’re safe and sound, and we’re a long way away from the volcano, so we’re in no danger at all.

One day we went to another old volcano, one that is asleep. It is just a small volcano, out in a lake. So we had to ride in some boats to get there. You can see in the picture that where the fire and lava came out is now peaceful and quiet.

This little volcano in the lake is called Taal (ta-All). It’s pretty to see. In November we are going to go there again, but this time we won’t go on the boats over to the volcano. We’ll just stay on the shore of the lake and look at the volcano across the water.

There are a lot of volcanoes in the Philippines, but Mayon and Taal are the volcanoes closest to us. But, really, they are not close at all, in fact, Mayon is on a whole different island from the one we are on, and Taal is fast asleep. Thanks for learning about volcanoes.