Volcano Pinatubo Ash Raw Minerals Lapilli Pumice Lava Bombs Stones Rocks Collecting

Volcanic Ash sample Raw Minerals Lapilli Pumice Lava Bombs Stones Rocks for Collection.
Very rare collection of extremely fine grained volcanic ash from the Volcano Pinatubo's eruption in June 1991, Philippines.
The sample was deposited on the decks of the SS Libra (リブラ号) travelling from Japan and subsequently collected.
What makes this sample particulary interesting is that is full documented. The exact latitude and longitude is noted on a map, as is the distribution of the ash cloud. With each sample you get a set of information photografic cards that shows copies of the originale documentation. This includes a map; scanning electron microscope image of the ash; a photo of the ship; a photo of the label on the original bottle the ash was collected in, and a copy of the summary report on the ash.

Volcanic ash consists of small tephra, which are bits of pulverized rock and glass created by volcanic eruptions, less than 2 millimetres (0.1 inch) in diameter . Ash is created when the usually violent nature of an eruption involving steam results in the magma and solid rock surrounding the vent being torn into particles of clay to sand size.
Every ash samples is labelled and bagged in a vial with cap (mm 20 x 5), so thay can easily be removed if required for study under a microscope.
As with all volcanic ash, the material should be handled with care and not inhaled.


Mount Pinatubo is an active volcano near the island of Luzón, in the Philippines. It is part of a submarine volcanic chain formed by the Eurasian plate that slides to the west next to the Philippines along the Manila fault. Pinatubo means "to grow" in local languages, which suggests a knowledge of eruptions prior to 1500 AD, although there is no oral tradition of previous major eruptions. Pinatubo could also indicate a fertile place where it is easy to have large crops.
Until 1991 the mountain, whose peak was 1,745 meters above sea level, appeared heavily eroded and covered by a dense forest able to sustain an indigenous population consisting of thousands of individuals who had abandoned the plain below already at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Philippines in 1565. Pinatubo was therefore an informal volcano, unknown to most locals, about half a million people who continue to live within 40 km of the volcano
The catastrophic Plinian eruption of 1991, the first after 5 centuries of inactivity, was the second largest eruption of the twentieth century. The predictions of the beginning of the eruptive activity proved to be accurate and tens of thousands of people were evacuated from the area surrounding the volcano saving many lives, but the area suffered numerous damages as a result of pyroclastic flows, the deposit of ashes, and in followed by the lahar, landslides of water and mud caused by the rains that removed the ashes deposited. The eruptive column threw the ashes at 24 km in height, with pyroclastic flows up to 4 km from the summit. The friction between the ashes generated numerous lightning strikes. Thousands of houses were destroyed, and so were the numerous rivers that originated from the Pinatubo. Before the eruption, these rivers housed important ecosystems, but the eruption filled many valleys with deep pyroclastic deposits. Since 1991, rivers clogged with sediments have caused frequent lahar. It will take many years to restore the situation before the eruption.
The effects of the eruption were felt at the planetary level: in the stratosphere an enormous quantity of gas was lowered by volume only at the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883; the atmospheric aerosol produced formed a darkening layer of sulfuric acid, the global temperature decreased by a half degree Celsius and the ozone hole grew substantially.
Although there seems to be no human knowledge of previous eruptions in the area, some local elders remembered explosions that occurred in the past. The Pinatubo was a recognized volcanic area already before the eruption and small steam geysers were quite frequent in the area. Only after the eruption did the geologists study the eruptive history of the region, whose activity seems to have started 1.1 million years ago. The ancestral Pinatubo may have reached heights of 2,300 meters based on what remains of its slopes. Numerous mountains near the modern Pinatubo are old volcanic mouths of the ancestral Pinatubo satellites formed by eruptive activities and some surrounding peaks are the eroded remains of the ancestral Pinatubo.
The eruptive activity of the ancestral Pinatubo was much less explosive than the modern Pinatubo and probably ended 45,000 years ago. After a long period of inactivity, the modern Pinatubo was born with eruptions that began around 35,000 years ago. The birth of the modern Pinatubo coincided with the largest explosive eruption in history that deposited pyroclastic material often up to 100 meters along all sides of the mountain. The volume of the expelled material, removed from the magma chamber, could be over 25 cubic kilometers, which led to the formation of a large volcanic caldera. Numerous large eruptions occurred 17,000, 9,000, 6,000-5,000, and 3,900-2,300 years ago. Each of these seems to have been very large, erupting more than 10 cubic km of materials and covering a large part of the surroundings with pyroclastic deposits. Scientists estimate that the most recent eruption before the 1991 eruption occurred 500 years ago, as a result of which the volcano remained dormant, so that even experts believed that the volcano was no longer active.

Available on our website, besides ashes, pumice and bombs, also various volcanic rocks, such as Apache Teardrops, sulfur, obsidian, tuff, crystal chalk, etc.