Babuyan Claro Volcano

Philippines , Philippines

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Babuyan Claro Volcano, also known as Mount Pangasun, is an active stratovolcano located on Babuyan Island, the northernmost of the Babuyan group of islands in the Luzon Strait about 100 kilometers north of the main island of Luzon in the Philippines.

Standing at an elevation of 843-1,080 meters (2,766-3,543 feet) with a base diameter of about 7.8-8 kilometers, it is the largest and second youngest of five volcanoes that built up Babuyan Island, with a volume of approximately 7-12.3 cubic kilometers. The volcano is politically located in Barangay Babuyan Claro, Municipality of Calayan, Cagayan province in the Cagayan Valley Region (Region II), and is part of the Babuyan (Bashi) segment of the Taiwan-Luzon Volcanic Arc formed by the subduction of the Eurasian Plate beneath the Philippine Sea Plate.

Babuyan Claro has two small preserved summit craters measuring 300 and 400 meters in diameter and is heavily forested, with Askna hot springs located on its southern slopes. The volcano has erupted at least 8 times since 1652, with historical eruptions occurring in 1652, 1831, 1860, 1907, 1913, 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1924, typically exhibiting Strombolian and phreatomagmatic eruption styles.

The largest historical eruption occurred in 1831 with a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 4, causing significant damage, while the last confirmed eruption was in 1924, making it currently dormant but still seismically active with periodic earthquake swarms suggesting magma beneath the surface. In the local Ibatan language, the volcano is called "Chinteb a Wasay," meaning "Cut of the Axe," and it remains potentially hazardous despite rarely erupting.