Volcanos!!

So I decided I would let you guys in on another love of mine! Most of you know my love for sports(softball, soccer, and football being the the favorites) but I have many other likes as well. So I'm going to do a series of blogs on one of my favorite topics, volcanos! I have a whole photo album of nothing but pictures I've collected online of volcanos! I'm not sure where my love for volcanos came from but it's been there as long as I can remember! They are so powerful and each one is so unique! They are always changing, growing, developing! It's just something is this great world of ours that never stops amazing me! They can be so destructive, yet they make land and their slopes contain some of the most fertile growing lands on earth! They are some of the only natural disasters that regrow and fix what they destroy! It may be a slow process but they do! I've decided to do a series of blogs about my 10 favorite volcanos! So I guess I'll jump into it!

#10: Mt. Mayon

Mt. Mayon is located in the Philippines in the province of Albay. Mayon is a classic stratovolcano. It has a perfect cone shape to it. It has very steep slopes! It is 8,077 feet high and is part of what scientist call the Pacific Ring of Fire! Mayon is a very active volcano! In fact, it's the most active volcano in the Philippines(and if you know anything about the Philippines you know they have alot of volcanos lol!)! It has erupted 48 times in the last 400 years! The last eruption was in December of 2010 but it had been erupting off and on and off from 2009 through all of 2010. It produces spectacular shows with lots of ash and lots of running lava!

I like this volcano because of it's shape. It reminds me of the classic volcano in all the cartoons I saw as kid! A beautiful cone shaped volcano reaching far into the sky! It is just so breath taking and I can't imagine what it would like to see in person! It's eruptions are just your classic eruption you see as a child. The firs time I saw a picture of it, I thought man all it needs is a few dinosuars and you've got your classic volcano lol! Here are a few pictures of Mt. Mayon. I obviously don't own any of them, I've just collected them on the internet but these are my favorites!

#9: Mt. Merapi

Mt. Merapi is a realtivly young stratovolcano(also know as a composit volcano) in Indonesia just 17 miles from the city of Yogyakarta.  Stratovolcano's are volcanos that are made of many different layers of hardened lava and other things. Mt. Merapi is a very active volcano. So active in fact, that it has smoke coming out of it atleast 300 days a year. It is 5,600 feet tall and also part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The reason I like Mt. Merapi is not just because it's a beautiful volcano(it is very beautiful!) but because of the myths and legends around the volcano. Merapi means "Mountain of Fire". Mt. Merapi is a very important part of the life of the people who live around it. Thousands of people live on it's flanks and use it's fertile lands to grow things to sale and feed their families. They have many stories about it and bring it sacrafices to keep the moutains spirit happy! The people truly respect this volcano and it is very important to them! You can read more on the myths that surround the volcano on Wikipedia! Here are a few pictures of the volcano.

Well I guess I've bored you guys long enough for today lol! I'll be back very soon with 2 more volcanos for ya! If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them(although I don't really think anybody reads these lol!)!