Mount Melibengoy, formerly known as Parker Volcano, is an active volcano on

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

island in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. It is located in the province of

South Cotabato South Cotabato, officially the Province of South Cotabato, is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Soccsksargen Regions of the Philippines, region in Mindanao. Its capital is Koronadal (also the regional cen ...

, west of

General Santos General Santos, officially the City of General Santos and abbreviated as GenSan, is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Regions of the Philippines, region of Soccsksargen, Philippines. According to ...

and south of

Koronadal City Koronadal, officially the City of Koronadal (; ; ; Maguindanaon: ''Kuta nu Kurunadal'', ) and also known as Marbel, is a component city and capital of the province of South Cotabato, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a popula ...

. The volcano's English name is taken from an American, General Frank Parker, who spotted the mountain and claimed to have "discovered" it during a flight he piloted in 1934. Parker led an expedition up to the lake in the mountain's crater with other US colonial and Filipino government officials, including Vice-Governor-General Joseph Ralston Hayden and Provincial Governor Gutierrez, in the fall of 1934.J. R. Hayden to Captain C. Morera, September 4, 1934 AND Hayden to Gov. Gutierrez, January 15, 1935, Joseph Ralston Hayden Papers, Box 27, Folder 32, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.

Physical features

The elevation is given as by some sources and as by others. The

volcano 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 oft ...

has a base diameter of . It has a wide caldera with steep walls that rise 200-500m above the

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

that is now called Lake Maughan. The lake, which is commonly called Lake Holon, was named after another American who was with Parker when he crashed. Melibengoy is considered one of the sacred places of the

T'boli The T'boli people () are an Austronesian indigenous people of South Cotabato in southern Mindanao in the Philippines. Ethnology T'bolis currently reside on the mountain slopes on either side of the upper Alah Valley and the coastal area of ...

tribe. It hosts a rare species, '' Parantica dannatti reyesi'', a butterfly related to the

monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

, which was discovered by the late Professor Josue de los Reyes of

Notre Dame of Marbel University Notre Dame of Marbel University, also known by its acronym NDMU, is a private Catholic educational institution run by the Marist Brothers in Koronadal, South Cotabato, Philippines. It was founded in 1945 and offers pre-school, elementary, high ...

and published in the entomological journal of Senckerburg Research Institute in December 1994. Government officials have also confirmed sightings of the

Philippine tarsier The Philippine tarsier (''Carlito syrichta''), known locally as ''mawumag'' in Cebuano and other Visayan languages, and ''magô'' in Waray, is a species of tarsier endemic to the Philippines. It is found in the southeastern part of the archip ...

, ''Tarsius syrichta,'' which can supposedly be found in the barangays surrounding Lake Holon.

Eruptions

Philippine Island - Mindanao - NARA - 68156214

Mount Parker is believed to have erupted thrice over the past 3,800 years, the last one on January 4, 1641. The 1641 eruption caused the formation of the crater lake. On September 6, 1995, local officials reported what they believed was volcanic activity at Lake Maughan. The alleged activity caused landslides and flooding along Ga-o River that drains Lake Maughan and joins Allah River in the north. Due to this phenomenon, the

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS, ; ) is a Philippine national institution dedicated to provide information on the activities of volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, as well as other specialized information and ...

installed monitoring equipment that established that the so-called activity was man-made. Less than a year after the 1995 activity, a temporary dam was formed at about 250 m from the outlet of Lake Maughan, alarming the residents within the area due to fear of flash floods. The deposited debris dammed the flowing Ga-o River and caused the lake level to rise by about .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melibengoy Stratovolcanoes of the Philippines Subduction volcanoes Volcanoes of Mindanao Mountains of the Philippines Active volcanoes of the Philippines Landforms of South Cotabato 17th-century volcanic events

Physical features

Eruptions

See also

References