The perfect cone

Mayon Volcano is an active volcano in the Philippines on the island of Luzon, in the province of Albay in the Bicol Region. Its almost perfectly-shaped cone is considered by some to be the Philippine equivalent of Mount Fuji in Japan. 15 kilometers to the southeast of the volcano is Legazpi City.

Mayon is classified by volcanologists as a stratovolcano (composite volcano). Its symmetric cone was formed through alternate pyroclastic and lava flows. Mayon is the most active volcano in the country, having erupted over 50 times in the past 400 years. It is located between the Eurasian and the Philippine Plate, at a convergent plate boundary: where a continental plate meets an oceanic plate, the lighter continental plate overrides the oceanic plate, forcing it down; magma is formed where the rock melts. Like other volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean, Mayon is a part of the "Pacific Ring of Fire".

Mayon has had forty-seven eruptions in recorded history; the first recorded eruption was in 1616, the latest (prior to 2006) being a mild outpouring of lava in June 2001. The most destructive eruption of Mayon occurred on February 1, 1814. At that time lava flows buried the town of Cagsawa and 1,200 people perished. Only the bell tower of the town's church remained above the new surface. Pyroclastic flows killed 77 people, mainly farmers, in Mayon’s last fatal eruption in 1993. No casualties were recorded from the 1984 eruption after more than 73,000 people were evacuated from the danger zones as recommended by scientists of Mckenzie Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.