The Apolaki Caldera is a

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

with a diameter of , making it the world's largest caldera. It is located within the Benham Rise (Philippine Rise) and was discovered in 2019 by Jenny Anne Barretto, a Filipino marine geophysicist and her team. The name "Apolaki" means "giant lord" in Filipino, and is also the name of the god of sun and war in some pantheons in

Philippine mythology Philippine mythology is rooted in the many indigenous Philippine folk religions. Philippine mythology exhibits influence from Hinduism, Hindu, Islam, Muslim, Buddhism, Buddhist, and Christianity, Christian traditions. Philippine mythology ...

and the

indigenous Philippine folk religions Indigenous Philippine folk religions are the distinct native religions of various ethnic groups in the Philippines, where most follow belief systems in line with animism. These Indigenous folk religionsAlmocera, Ruel A., (2005) Popular Filipi ...

. The volcano has been inactive for millions of years.

Geological history

Gravimetric analysis Gravimetric analysis describes a set of methods used in analytical chemistry for the quantitative determination of an analyte (the ion being analyzed) based on its mass. The principle of this type of analysis is that once an ion's mass has been ...

shows that the Philippine Rise, as the submarine mountain

massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...

is named, is made of a nine mile thick layer of magmatic and volcanic rocks. Rock samples ages range from 47.9 to 26 million years, when volcanic activity made up the massif.

References

{{reflist Volcanoes of Luzon Calderas of the Philippines Submarine volcanoes