Volcanoes

VOLCANOES are terribly destructive and frightening as is happening now in Hawaii. Many have lost their homes and plantations. In the eighteenth century in Indonesia, the Krakatoa sent fumes all over the world and sank the island it was on. Our own Pinatubo eruptions in the 1990s inundated many towns in Pampanga and Zambales. Guagua church has only its spires sticking out of the lahar. We had a new house in Zambales in the middle of a citrus orchard. The lahar settled like beautiful snow on the roof without any damage. But when it rained the lahar absorbed the water and crushed the roof.

The first wave of lahar was washed away by the rains but a second wave came and buried the citrus orchard forever. The head of the Pagasa insisted on evacuation of the areas likely to be affected by the eruptions of Pinatubo so he saved thousands of lives. Only about 300 lives were lost. Some Aetas took shelter in the caves but only a few covered themselves with guano, or bat droppings and only those who covered themselves were saved. We must not forget the Pagasa head who saved thousands of people, He was a real hero.

The lahar coming from the eruptions are useful as planting material for nurseries and base for carvings. Since it is light material it has been used as substitute for sand in highrise buildings. But the most profitable use for volcanoes has been in production of electricity. .Geothermal power is when water comes near the heat of the volcanoes and it comes up as steam which can be harnessed for electricity. Geothermal power is plentiful in the Philippines and we are second in the world in production of geothermal power. Second only to the United States. We originally produced power in Tiwi but have produced many other geothermal plants, especially in the Visayas. Once the pipes have been laid, it is an almost free source of power. Its disadvantage is when the pipes corrode and have to be replaced because of corrosion from the impurities in the water. A possible solution to this is to coat the pipes with ceramics. But it seems that this has not been tried because of the expense.

This country is dotted with volcanoes and that is the reason we have no oil deposits for these volcanoes have probably burned up all possible petroleum deposits. Only in the west Palawan have we found oil. In all the other places, most of the resources are metals from volcanic eruptions. Philippine Rise, or the Benham Rise, is still an unknown area but hopefully it does not have any volcanoes so it may be a potential for hydrocarbons.

Volcanoes can also be an attraction for tourism. Our Mayon volcano is beautiful in the evening when it is spouting some lava but not causing any destruction. Even the volcano in Arayat and the Japanese Mount Fuji were formed by volcanoes that are now extinct. Taal Volcano in Batangas probably erupted about 200,000 years ago and its lahar reached Quezon City and turned into adobe. This adobe would be a good base for creating a subway system in Metro Manila. Digging through adobe is economical because a subway will not have to build support systems. Going south from the Pasig would be soft soil or sand as in Pasay, Ermita, and Intramuros. I am not sure about Paco and Pasig if it is also adobe from the eruptions of Taal Volcano 200 centuries ago. In the end volcanoes have some useful effects besides the destruction they can cause.

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