The Philippines sits squarely on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the Philippine Sea Plate, the Sunda Plate and several smaller blocks collide and subduct beneath the archipelago. This crowded tectonic setting, threaded by the Philippine Fault Zone that runs the length of the islands, makes the country one of the most seismically and volcanically active nations on Earth.
It hosts around two dozen active volcanoes, including Mayon with its near-perfect cone, Taal near Manila, and Mount Pinatubo, whose 1991 eruption was the second-largest of the 20th century and briefly cooled the global climate. Devastating earthquakes are equally common, such as the magnitude 7.8 Luzon quake of 1990 and the 2013 Bohol earthquake, driving the country's strong culture of disaster preparedness.