Geological History
Mount Pinatubo's summit before the 1991 eruption was 1,745 m (5,725 ft) above sea level, only about 600 m (2,000 ft) above nearby plains, and only about 200 m (660 ft) higher than surrounding peaks, which largely obscured it from view. It is part of a chain of volcanoes which lie along the western side of the edge of the island of Luzon called the Zambales Mountains. Pinatubo belongs to the Cabusilan Mountains, the central range of the Zambales Mountains, which consists of Mt. Cuadrado, Mt. Negron, Mt. Mataba and Mt. Pinatubo. They are subduction volcanoes, formed by the Eurasian Plate sliding under the Philippine Mobile Belt along the Manila Trench to the west. Mount Pinatubo and the other volcanoes on this volcanic belt arise due to magma occlusion from this subduction plate boundary.
Pinatubo is flanked on the west by the Zambales Ophiolite Complex, which is an easterly-dipping section of Eocene oceanic crust which was uplifted during the late Oligocene. The Tarlac Formation consists of marine, nonmarine and volcaniclastic sediments in the north, east and southeast of Pinatubo which were formed in the late Miocene and Pliocene.
The most recent study of Mount Pinatubo prior to the activities of 1991 was the overall geological study in 1983 and 1984 made by F. G. Delfin for the Philippine National Oil Company as part of the surface investigations of the area prior to the exploratory drilling and well testing for geothermal sources in 1988 to 1990. He recognized two life histories of the mountain, which he classified as 'ancestral' and 'modern' Pinatubo.
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