Catalog record
These fields are copied from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program Holocene volcano snapshot stored on this site. The file was fetched 2026-09-19T12:21:44Z. It is a location catalog, not a live alert.
- Catalog name
- Pinatubo
- GVP number
- 273083
- Country
- Philippines
- Type
- Stratovolcano
- Elevation
- 1,486 m
- Region
- Western Pacific Volcanic Regions
- Subregion
- Luzon Volcanic Arc
- Tectonic setting
- Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km)
- Last-eruption year
- 2021
- Evidence code
- Eruption Observed
- Latitude, longitude
- 15.13, 120.35
Elevation rank in the Luzon Volcanic Arc in this snapshot: 2 of 9. Rank is by the listed elevation only. It is not a hazard ranking.
How to read the last-eruption year
The year is a catalog field. A recent year means the snapshot recorded activity in that year. It is not an alert level, a size, or a statement about what happens next. Evidence codes in this file include “Eruption Observed” and “Eruption Dated.” Those are Smithsonian categories for how the eruption year was established, not a forecast flag.
Setting
USGS describes a VEI 6 eruption as having an ash volume near 10 cubic kilometers and names the 1991 eruption of Pinatubo as that example. The scale also uses duration and other observations. Parícutin produced a large volume over nine years and is classified lower because it was not a short, violent explosion. VEI is a comparison of eruptions scientists have already described.
In this snapshot Pinatubo is a stratovolcano at 1,486 m in the Luzon Volcanic Arc, last-eruption year 2021, inside the Philippines rectangle. Taal is a much lower caldera in the same arc. Mayon is in the Eastern Philippine Volcanic Arc. The three rows are neighbors in the country file, not three copies of one volcano.
Inside these documented rectangles: Philippines. The rectangles are documented on the About page. They are a lat/lon belt, not an official plate polygon.
Other volcanoes in this subregion
Highest listed elevations in the Luzon Volcanic Arc in this snapshot, excluding this volcano when it is already first:
- Banahaw, 2,158 m, last-eruption year not listed.
- Cagua, 1,133 m, last-eruption year 1860.
- San Pablo Volcanic Field, 1,090 m, last-eruption year 1350.
Distance to published great-earthquake epicenters
The distances below use this volcano’s catalog coordinates and epicenters from the USGS list of the 20 largest earthquakes since 1900. They are spherical distances to points, not distances to a fault trace, and not a hazard score.
- 1938 M8.5 Banda Sea (1938-02-01 19:04 UTC) — 2,564 km from the catalog point.
- 1950 M8.6 Assam–Tibet (1950-08-15 14:09 UTC) — 2,864 km from the catalog point.
- 2005 M8.6 Nias, Indonesia (2005-03-28 16:10 UTC) — 2,932 km from the catalog point.
You can repeat the measurement for any coordinates on the distance to fault references tool.
What this page will not tell you
It will not tell you the next eruption time, the next earthquake on the neighboring trench, or an evacuation route. For U.S. volcano notices, use the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. For earthquakes, use the USGS event pages linked from Live Quakes. This site’s volcano map only draws the Holocene catalog.