Musuan Peak or Mount Musuan , also known as Mount Calayo (, literally "Fire Mountain") is an

active volcano An active volcano is a volcano which is either erupting or is likely to erupt in the future. An active volcano which is not currently erupting is known as a dormant volcano. Overview Tlocene Epoch. Most volcanoes are situated on the Pacific R ...

Maramag Maramag, officially the Municipality of Maramag ( ceb, Lungsod sa Maramag; tl, Bayan ng Maramag), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Bukidnon, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 108,293 people. Histo ...

Bukidnon Bukidnon(), officially the Province of Bukidnon ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Bukidnon; fil, Lalawigan ng Bukidnon; hil, Kapuroan sang Bukidnon; Binukid and Higaonon: ''Probinsya ta Bukidnon''), is a landlocked province in the Philippines located in the ...

, on the island of

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of t ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It is south of the city of

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

, and southeast of

Cagayan de Oro City Cagayan ( ), officially the Province of Cagayan ( ilo, Probinsia ti Cagayan; ibg, Provinsiya na Cagayan; itv, Provinsiya ya Cagayan; fil, Lalawigan ng Cagayan), is a province in the Philippines located in the Cagayan Valley region, covering ...

Physical characteristics

Musuan is a

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruption ...

and

tuff cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcano, volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone (geometry), cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depen ...

. It has an elevation of

asl American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

, and a base diameter of .

Eruptions

The

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS, ; tl, Surian ng Pilipinas sa Bulkanolohiya at Sismolohiya) is a Philippine national institution dedicated to provide information on the activities of volcanoes, earthquakes, and ...

reports that Musuan erupted in 1866 and 1867, but the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program records another eruption, possibly

phreatic ''Phreatic'' is a term used in hydrology to refer to aquifers, in speleology to refer to cave passages, and in volcanology to refer to a type of volcanic eruption. Hydrology The term phreatic (the word originates from the Greek , meaning "well" ...

, that "burned everything around it." The explosion supposedly occurred four years before the 1891 visit of a Jesuit priest, who reported that he could not examine the volcano more closely because of strong

solfataric A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

activity. A strong seismic swarm occurred near Musuan in 1976, and again around mid-2011. Musuan is one of the active volcanoes in the Philippines, which are all part of the

Pacific ring of fire The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. The Ring ...

Flora

Mount Musuan's northern slope is still covered by a primary rainforest. The rest is covered predominantly by Cogon grass (''

Imperata cylindrica ''Imperata cylindrica'' (commonly known as cogongrass or kunai grass ) is a species of perennial rhizomatous grass native to tropical and subtropical Asia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia, Africa, and southern Europe. It has also been introduc ...

''). Reforestation efforts on the bare areas, both in tree-planting drives and by Central Mindanao University personnel, have established temporary forests of ''

Acacia mangium ''Acacia mangium'' is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to northeastern Queensland in Australia, the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, Papua, and the eastern Maluku Islands. Common names include bla ...

'' and conifers. There are 524 species of plants in Mount Musuan under 353 genera and 135 families. 301 species are trees, 51 shrubs, 50 grasses and sedges, 46 herbs, 42 vines, 31 ferns, and 3 fern allies. 188 species (35%) are economically important, 128 species (24%) are endemic, and 3 (1%) are endangered species. Musuan peak has approximately 6,354 individual trees. The most common tree species (in density and frequency) are the ''

Melanolepis multiglandulosa ''Melanolepsis multiglandulosa'' is a plant species of the family Euphorbiaceae, first described in 1826. It is native to Nansei-shoto, Mariana Islands, Solomon Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Maluku, Sulawesi, Philippines, Les ...

'' (Kamala tree) and '' Colona serratifolia'', followed by '' Clausena brevistyla'' and ''

Alstonia scholaris ''Alstonia scholaris'', commonly called blackboard tree, Scholar Tree, Milkwood or devil's tree in English, is an evergreen tropical tree in the Dogbane Family (Apocynaceae). It is native to southern China, tropical Asia (mainly the Indian subcon ...

'' (Blackboard tree). Three species of

pteridophytes A pteridophyte is a vascular plant (with xylem and phloem) that disperses spores. Because pteridophytes produce neither flowers nor seeds, they are sometimes referred to as " cryptogams", meaning that their means of reproduction is hidden. ...

are locally threatened: ''

Marsilea crenata ''Marsilea crenata'' is a species of fern found in Southeast Asia. It is an aquatic plant looking like a four leaf clover. Leaves floating in deep water or erect in shallow water or on land. Leaflets glaucous, sporocarp ellipsoid, on stalks a ...

'' ("''apat-apat''"), '' Ceratopteris thalictroides'' ("''pakung-sungay''"), and ''

Lycopodiella cernua ''Lycopodiella'' is a genus in the clubmoss family Lycopodiaceae. The genus members are commonly called bog clubmosses, describing their wetland habitat. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with centers of diversity in the tropical ...

'' (clubmoss). 10 species of pteridophytes are endemic to the area.

History and Infrastructure

Mount Musuan's lack of any visible crater has led to some local skepticism of it being an active volcano. Still, the imagery evoked by its name variant 'Mount Calayo' (Fire Mountain) and the stories told by local

tribesmen keeps people wary of the relatively small mountain which doesn't look like a volcano at all. Valencia City is located North of the peak, the

Central Mindanao University Central Mindanao University (CMU; fil, Pamantasan ng Gitnang Mindanao) is a research state university located in the heart of Mindanao Island, province of Bukidnon, Philippines. Founded in 1910, it is one of the oldest premier universities in ...

(CMU) and Barangay Dologon at the southwest, and the

Pulangi River The Pulangi River ( Cebuano pronunciation IPA uˈlaŋi, also spelled Pulangui, is one of the major tributaries of the Rio Grande de Mindanao, an extensive river system in Mindanao, Philippines. With a length of , it is the longest river in ...

on the entire eastern side. At the foot of Musuan Peak is the Mount Musuan Zoological and Botanical Garden of the Central Mindanao University. It includes a butterfly greenhouse and a reforestation nursery among its buildings. The

Sayre Highway The Francis Bowes Sayre Sr. Highway or simply the Sayre Highway is a four-lane, , primary national highway that connects Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental to Kabacan, North Cotabato. It traverses the provinces of Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon and ...

and a research center of the

Philippine Carabao Center The Philippine Carabao Center ( fil, Sentro ng Kalabaw sa Pilipinas or ''Sentro ng Pilipinas para sa Kalabaw'') an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, was established at Science City of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija province in 1992 to bre ...

are located on the western slopes. It has a tourist shop which sells dairy products made from

Carabao The carabao ( es, Carabao; tgl, Kalabaw; ceb, Kabaw; ilo, Nuang) is a domestic swamp-type water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis'') native to the Philippines. Carabaos were introduced to Guam from the Spanish Philippines in the 17th century. They ...

milk. South of the mountain are the university agricultural facilities including a cattle

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most oft ...

, a

poultry farm Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion ch ...

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown.These ...

s, and a

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

. Due to its proximity to the university and the university town proper, it has become a popular destination for students, teachers, and tourists; either for picnics or a study of the flora and fauna of one of the few remnants of the jungles that once covered the valleys of the surrounding areas.Maramag Things to Do Tips
/ref> From its isolated position in the middle of the valley and the very small surface area of its highest point (only a few meters), the entire countryside is visible from the top. Currently its slopes has been the target of extensive reforestation efforts partly paid for by the establishment of toll gates to hikers intending to go up the mountain.

References

External links