Eruption of Mount Pinatubo

Date: June 15, 1991 • Location: Babo-Pangulo, Philippines

An eruption of Mount Pinatubo (pictured) in the Philippines deposited large amounts of particulate matter into the atmosphere, enough to briefly lower global temperatures by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F).

The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines' Luzon Volcanic Arc was the second-largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, behind only the 1912 eruption of Novarupta in Alaska. Eruptive activity began on April 2 as a series of phreatic explosions from a fissure that opened on the north side of Mount Pinatubo. Seismographs were set up and began monitoring the volcano for earthquakes. In late May, the number of seismic events under the volcano fluctuated from day-to-day. Beginning June 6, a swarm of progressively shallower earthquakes accompanied by inflationary tilt on the upper east flank of the mountain, culminated in the extrusion of a small lava dome.