Village of Bacolor under a layer of mud, the island of Luzon, Philippines
In 1991 the Mt. Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines, began to erupt after nearly six centuries of dormancy, projecting a 66-millioncubic- foot (18-million-cubic-meter) cloud of sulfurous gas and ash to a height of 115,000 feet (35,000 m) and destroying all life within a radius of 9 miles (14 km). In the days that followed, torrential rains from a typhoon mixed with ash, spread over several thousand kilometres. This resulted in devastating mudflows and ash flows (lahars) which engulfed entire villages.