Mt. Apo Climb 2022! Huge Mt. Apo Boulders Are Petrified Magmas!

Crawling up the boulders of Mt. Apo is perhaps the most challenging part of the recent climb which I made.

To take my mind off the difficult climb, I focused my attention on the breathtaking view overlooking Davao City and the things around me.

I made some very interesting observations though and one of these is the presence of Blueberry shrubs which grew in the spaces between the boulders.

Another unusual thing which caught my curiousity was the appearance of what had long been known as boulders or the big chunks of rocks at the cliff of Mt Apo facing Digos City.

When I looked closely, I realized that they are not rocks but petrified magma.

Sadly, there is not much study about Mt. Apo, not even an account of when it last erupted.

Here is a very brief footnote on Mt. Apo which I read in the Global Volcanism Program:

“Apo volcano is the highest peak in the Philippines, but its geologic history is poorly known. Apo, which means master, or grandfather, rises to 2938 m SW of the coastal city of Davao and has a flat-topped summit with three peaks. The SW peak of the andesitic-to-dacitic volcano, also known as Davao volcano, is the highest and contains a 500-m-wide crater containing a small lake. The youngest crater is on the northern peak. A line of solfataras rises from a fissure on the SE side that extends from 2400 m to the summit. Apo is one of several volcanoes to which the major 1641 eruption from Parker volcano was incorrectly attributed to, but no historical eruptions are known from Apo.”

So until today, the mountain that is considered as the second tallest in Southeast Asia and home to the Philippine Eagle is still largely a mystery.

#MysteriousMountApo!