Makaturing

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Makaturing Volcano, or Mount Makaturing, is a stratovolcano on Mindanao island in the Philippines. It is found in the province of Lanao del Sur in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (7°38.5’N, 124°20.5’E).

Makaturing has an elevation of 1,908 meters and a base diameter of 29 kms and is part of a string of volcanos called the Central Mindanao Arc.

[edit] Eruptions

There is still some controversy on the number of times Makaturing erupted. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology lists 10 eruptions with the last one occurring on March 18, 1882. But the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanology Program, citing the Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World (Neumann van Padang, 1953), asserts that some eruptions were actually those of neighboring Ragang volcano.

Makaturing is one of the 22 active volcanoes in the Philippines: Babuyan Claro, Banahaw, Bulusan, Mount Biliran, Bud Dajo, Cagua, Camiguin de Babuyanes, Didicas, Hibok-Hibok, Iraya, Mount Iriga, Mount Kanlaon, Leonard Kniaseff, Matutum, Mayon, Musuan, Mount Parker (Cotabato), Pinatubo, Ragang, Smith Volcano, Taal. They are all part of the so-called "Pacific ring of fire."

[edit] Trivia

On May 18, 1947, Philippine Air Force (PAF) commander Gen. Edwin Andrews died with 16 others when the C-47 transport plane carrying them crashed in Makaturing. Nine years later, the PAF established an air base in Zamboanga City and is now named the Edwin Andrews Air Base from where the Philippine military launch air support operations in the ongoing campaign against communist and Muslim insurgents.