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=Mt Pinatubo! =

Mt Pinatubo is one of the composite* volcanoes on the island of Luzon in the Phillipines. There are lots of other composite volcanoes there like Mayon Volcano. The second largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century was when Mt Pinatubo erupted on June 15th 1991. The only volcanic eruption that was larger was Katmai-Noverupta which erupted in Alaska in 1912. Mt Pinatubo’s other huge eruptions were 500, 3000 and 5500 years ago.

30,000 people lived on Mt Pinatubo & sadly 800 people died. Luckily, 5,000 people were evacuated when alerts came out on June 5th and June 9th. Half a billion dollars in property was lost and the region is still recovering right now.

Many more people would have survived if Tropical Storm Yunya wasn’t there. The ash from Mt Pinatubo mixed with rain from Yunya. Lots of people were crushede inside their houses by the heavy weight the tephra (ash and rain mixed together). Also, sulpher dioxide gas came out of Mt Pinatubo which mixed with the rain from Yunya and the oxygen in the air which makes sulphuric acid. (Sulpher dioxide gas + water + oxygen = Sulphuric acid). Sulphuric acid is poisonous & caused the world temperature to drop by 0.5C.

Mt Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991 was a terrible disaster. Not only wee 800 people killed, the chemicals in the atmosphere changed the world temperature. History states that Mt Pinatubo will erupt again, when is the question….


 * See our types of volcanoes page to find out what a composite volcano is & more about types of volcanoes. [[image:http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:CuTusbd0m9zJ_M:http://www.unep-wcmc.org/information_services/publications/MountainWatch_Bishkek/presspack/I/PINATUBO_91.jpg width="116" height="150" link="http://images.google.co.nz/imgres?imgurl=http://www.unep-wcmc.org/information_services/publications/MountainWatch_Bishkek/presspack/I/PINATUBO_91.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.unep-wcmc.org/information_services/publications/MountainWatch_Bishkek/presspack/photos.htm&usg=__Go_uhzqfkJ0yULAbz_htxIzgUt0=&h=1678&w=1299&sz=855&hl=en&start=11&tbnid=CuTusbd0m9zJ_M:&tbnh=150&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmt%2Bpinatubo%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den"]]

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