Philippines
The Philippines the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon and Mindanao; the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. Bounded by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Vietnam to the west, Palau to the east, Malaysia and Indonesia to the south; the Philippines' location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons, but endows it with abundant natural resources and some of the world's greatest biodiversity. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 km2, according to the Philippines Statistical Authority and the WorldBank and, as of 2015, had a population of at least 100 million.
As of January 2018, it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, comprising one of the world's largest diasporas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Malay, Indian and Chinese nations occurred. Various competing maritime states were established under the rule of datus, rajahs and lakans; the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for the Spanish, in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the first Hispanic settlement in the archipelago was established.
The Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Catholicism becoming the dominant religion. During this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons; as the 19th century gave way to the 20th, the Philippine Revolution followed, which spawned the short-lived First Philippine Republic, followed by the bloody Philippine–American War. The war, as well as the ensuing cholera epidemic, resulted in the deaths of thousands of combatants as well as tens of thousands of civilians. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, when the Philippines was recognized as an independent nation. Since the unitary sovereign state has had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution; the Philippines is a founding member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the East Asia Summit.
It hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank. The Philippines is considered to be an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, which has an economy transitioning from being based on agriculture to one based more on services and manufacturing. Along with East Timor, the Philippines is one of Southeast Asia's predominantly Christian nations; the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte and Samar Felipinas after the then-Prince of Asturias; the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other names such as Islas del Poniente and Magellan's name for the islands San Lázaro were used by the Spanish to refer to the islands; the official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history. During the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic.
From the period of the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War until the Commonwealth period, American colonial authorities referred to the country as the Philippine Islands, a translation of the Spanish name. Since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. Philippines has gained currency as the common name since being the name used in Article VI of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, with or without the definite article. Discovery in 2018 of stone tools and fossils of butchered animal remains in Rizal, Kalinga has pushed back evidence of early hominins in the archipelago to as early as 709,000 years. However, the metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago remains the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date; this distinction belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were among the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated.
There are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos. F. Landa Jocano theorizes. Wilhelm Solheim's Island Origin Theory postulates that the peopling of the archipelago transpired via trade networks originating in the Sundaland area around
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island, the ninth-largest island in the world. In 2011, Great Britain had a population of about 61 million people, making it the world's third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan; the island of Ireland is situated to the west of Great Britain, together these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands, form the British Isles archipelago. The island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, Great Britain is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constitutes most of its territory. Most of England and Wales are on the island; the term "Great Britain" is used to include the whole of England and Wales including their component adjoining islands. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland by the 1707 Acts of Union.
In 1801, Great Britain united with the neighbouring Kingdom of Ireland, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, renamed the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" after the Irish Free State seceded in 1922. The archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years: the term'British Isles' derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a collective name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, Roman-occupied Britain south of Caledonia; the earliest known name for Great Britain is Albion or insula Albionum, from either the Latin albus meaning "white" or the "island of the Albiones". The oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, "There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles and Ierne".
Pliny the Elder in his Natural History records of Great Britain: "Its former name was Albion. Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne; the French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Bryten, Breten. Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together, it is derived from the travel writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC, which described various islands in the North Atlantic as far north as Thule. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the island group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι; the peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Priteni or Pretani. Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland; the latter were called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans. Greek historians Diodorus of Sicily and Strabo preserved variants of Prettanike from the work of Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia, who travelled from his home in Hellenistic southern Gaul to Britain in the 4th century BC.
The term used by Pytheas may derive from a Celtic word meaning "the painted ones" or "the tattooed folk" in reference to body decorations. The Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. In his work, Geography, he gave the islands the names Alwion and Mona, suggesting these may have been the names of the individual islands not known to him at the time of writing Almagest; the name Albion appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain, after which Britain became the more commonplace name for the island. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a historical term only. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae refers to the island as Britannia major, to distinguish it from Britannia minor, the continental region which approximates to modern Brittany, settled in the fifth and sixth centuries by migrants from Britain; the term Great Britain was first used in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Cecily the daughter of Edward IV of England, James the son of James III of Scotland, which described it as "this Nobill Isle, callit Gret Britanee".
It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself "King of Great Brittaine and Ireland". Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, it is often used to refer politically to the whole of England and Wales, including their smaller off shore islands. While it is sometimes used to refer to the whole of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, this is not correct. Britain can refer to either all island
Palaui Island Protected Landscape and Seascape
The Palaui Island Protected Landscape and Seascape is a protected area and national park in the town of Santa Ana in Cagayan, Philippines. It is located off the northeastern extremity of the largest island in the country. Palaui Island lies off the northwestern part of a large promontory in San Vicente, in the municipality of Santa Ana, Cagayan province, it is about 5 kilometres at its widest and moderately high. The western shore of the island appears bold, but on the eastern side, a reef projects from its side for 2.4 kilometres, the edge of it being 0.8 kilometres from and extending around the small islet of Escucha, east of Palaui. The Dos Hermanos rocky islets lie off Cape Engaño, in the northern point of Palaui, there are some rocks off the northeast point of the island, about 1.6 kilometres eastward of the cape. Gran Laja island, a low rock islet surrounded by breakers, is one of the rocks located northeast off Palaui. At the southwest end of Palaui Island is Puerto Point, a high, wooded bluff.
East of the point and south of Palaui is Rona Island, a low, wooded island with a white base of sand and rocks. Escucha Island is a high and wooded islet east of Palaui, beyond Rona Island when seen from southwestward through the channel between Palaui Island and the mainland, where a few more islets are located. Palaui Island was declared as a National Marine Reserve in August 28, 1994 encompassing an area of 7,145 hectares; the waters around the island boast of 21 commercial species of fishes with about 50 hectares of undisturbed corals. Because of its remoteness, Palaui Island is home to 105 species of rattan and similar commercially valuable timber producing wood species plus 25 imported shrubs and is the sanctuary for 90 migratory birds. Among the destinations in the Palaui is the northern point of the island is the Cape Engaño Lighthouse, situated at Cape Engaño the northern point of the island and its beaches; the island is the tenth entry in CNN's World's 100 Best Beaches list, published on May 13, which remarked the island's "raw beauty"On June 22, 2018, the Palaui Island Protected Landscape and Seascape was designated a national park through the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act or Republic Act No. 11038.
In January 2019, the island won the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Community-Based Tourism Award for 2019-2021 "for promoting sustainable tourism through the efforts of the island’s environmental group, the Palaui Environmental Protectors Association". The Port of San Vicente in the Cagayan mainland serves residents and tourist going to or departing from Palaui Island. Docking areas in Palaui is the coastline of Engaño Cove. In 2013, it was used as the filming location for Survivor: Blood vs. Water and Survivor: Cagayan. List of islands of the Philippines List of protected areas of the Philippines
Babuyan Islands
The Babuyan Islands known as the Babuyan Group of Islands, is an archipelago in the Philippines, located in the Luzon Strait north of the main island of Luzon. The archipelago consists of their surrounding smaller islands; these main islands are, counterclockwise starting from northeast, Calayan, Dalupiri and Camiguin. The Babuyan Islands are separated from Luzon by the Babuyan Channel, from the province of Batanes to the north by the Balintang Channel; the archipelago, comprising 24 volcanic-coralline islands, has a total area of about 596 square kilometres. The largest of these is Calayan with an area of 196 square kilometres, while the highest peak in the island group is Mount Pangasun on Babuyan Claro; the following are the islands of Babuyan and their adjoining islets and rocks, along with land areas and highest elevation: The eastern islands of the archipelago are part of the Luzon Volcanic Arc. Three volcanoes from two of the islands have erupted in historical times - Camiguin de Babuyanes on Camiguin Island, Babuyan Claro Volcano and Smith Volcano on Babuyan Island.
Another small volcanic island located just 22 km NE of Camiguin Island, Didicas Volcano on Didicas Island, became a permanent island only during the activity of 1952. All of the islands within the island group are classified by Haribon Foundation and BirdLife International as key biodiversity areas, or sites with outstanding universal value due to its geographic and biologic importance. All of the islands within the island group have never been part of any large landmass, thus have unique flora and fauna, most of which are found nowhere else. A research conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have found at least 5 faunal regions in the area, one of the highest density of separate faunal regions in the world; the islands is home to the most critically endangered bird species in the Philippines, the Calayan rail, the most critically endangered snake species in the Philippines, the Ross' wolf snake. The island group is a congregation site for endangered humpback whales, one of the only few of its kind in Southeast Asia.
Due to its immense value to the natural world and Philippine biological diversity, various scientific and conservation groups have been lobbying for its declaration as a national park and its inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Humpback Whales have re-colonized into the area and the Babuyan became the only wintering ground for the species in the Philippines although historical records among Babuyan Islands have not been confirmed; the origins of the Babuyan people date back to some 60,000+ years ago when Negrito tribes inhabited the islands Austonesians migrated to the islands. In the late 1580s large groups Filipinos fled the mainland when Spain began to invade the Philippines; the small islands now have a mixture of different ethnic groups. Since the early 1800s people from Hawaii, Samoa and Japan have settled on the group of islands. While the native people are considered Filipino they are an ethnic mix of the people from Samoa, Hawaii and Tonga that now call the islands home; some Babuyan people are majority polytheistic and believe in multiple gods, others practice Hinduism.
In the 1940s American soldiers introduced the native people to the Christian religion and now 30% of the natives are Christian. The whole archipelago is administered under the province of Cagayan with Babuyan, Calayan and Dalupiri comprising the municipality of Calayan while Fuga is under the municipality of Aparri. Babuyan and Dalupiri are themselves individual barangays in Calayan municipality named Babuyan Claro and Dalupiri, while Fuga Island is an individual barangay named Fuga Island, in Aparri. Information on Fuga Island Babuyan language wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
Bioturbation
Bioturbation is defined as the reworking of soils and sediments by animals or plants. These include burrowing and defecation of sediment grains. Bioturbating activities have a profound effect on the environment and are thought to be a primary driver of biodiversity; the formal study of bioturbation began in the 1800s by Charles Darwin experimenting in his garden. The disruption of aquatic sediments and terrestrial soils through bioturbating activities provides significant ecosystem services; these include the alteration of nutrients in aquatic sediment and overlying water, shelter to other species in the form of burrows in terrestrial and water ecosystems, soil production on land. Bioturbators are deemed ecosystem engineers because they alter resource availability to other species through the physical changes they make to their environments; this type of ecosystem change affects the evolution of cohabitating species and the environment, evident in trace fossils left in marine and terrestrial sediments.
Other bioturbation effects include altering the texture of sediments and displacement of microorganisms and non-living particles. Bioturbation is sometimes confused with the process of bioirrigation, however these processes differ in what they are mixing. Walruses and pocket gophers are examples of large bioturbators. Although the activities of these large macrofaunal bioturbators are more conspicuous, the dominant bioturbators are small invertebrates, such as earthworms, ghost shrimp, mud shrimp, midge larvae; the activities of these small invertebrates, which include burrowing and ingestion and defecation of sediment grains, contribute to mixing and the alteration of sediment structure. Bioturbation's importance for soil processes and geomorphology was first realized by Charles Darwin, who devoted his last scientific book to the subject. Darwin spread chalk dust over a field to observe changes in the depth of the chalk layer over time. Excavations 30 years after the initial deposit of chalk revealed that the chalk was buried 18 centimeters under the sediment, which indicated a burial rate of 6 millimeters per year.
Darwin attributed this burial to the activity of earthworms in the sediment and determined that these disruptions were important in soil formation. In 1891, geologist Nathaniel Shaler expanded Darwin's concept to include soil disruption by ants and trees; the term "bioturbation" was coined by Rudolf Richter in 1952 to describe structures in sediment caused by living organisms. Since the 1980s, the term "bioturbation" has been used in soil and geomorphology literature to describe the reworking of soil and sediment by plants and animals; the onset of bioturbation had a profound effect on the environment and the evolution of other organisms. Bioturbation is thought to have been an important co-factor of the Cambrian Explosion, during which most major animal phyla appeared in the fossil record over a short time. Predation arose during this time and promoted the development of hard skeletons, for example bristles and shells, as a form of armored protection, it is hypothesized. These new hard parts enabled animals to dig into the sediment to seek shelter from predators, which created an incentive for predators to search for prey in the sediment.
Burrowing species fed on buried organic matter in the sediment which resulted in the evolution of deposit feeding. Prior to the development of bioturbation, laminated microbial mats were the dominant biological structures of the ocean floor and drove much of the ecosystem functions; as bioturbation increased, burrowing animals disturbed the microbial mat system and created a mixed sediment layer with greater biological and chemical diversity. This greater biological and chemical diversity is thought to have led to the evolution and diversification of seafloor-dwelling species. An alternate, less accepted hypothesis for the origin of bioturbation exists; the trace fossil Nenoxites is thought to be the earliest record of bioturbation, predating the Cambrian Period. The fossil is dated to 555 million years; the fossil indicates a 5 centimeter depth of bioturbation in muddy sediments by a burrowing worm. This is consistent with food-seeking behavior, as there tended to be more food resources in the mud than the water column.
However, this hypothesis requires more precise geological dating to rule out an early Cambrian origin for this specimen. The evolution of trees during the Devonian Period enhanced soil weathering and increased the spread of soil due to bioturbation by tree roots. Root penetration and uprooting enhanced soil carbon storage by enabling mineral weathering and the burial of organic matter. Bioturbators have been organized by a variety of functional groupings based on either ecological characteristics or biogeochemical effects. While the prevailing categorization is based on the way bioturbators transport and interact with sediments, the various groupings stem from the relevance of a categorization mode to a field of study and an attempt to concisely organize the wide variety of bioturbating organisms in classes that describe their function. Examples of categorizations include those based on feeding and motility and biological interactions, mobility modes; the most common set of groupings are based on sediment transport and are as follows: Gallery-diffusers create complex tube networks within the upper sediment layers an
Luzon
Luzon is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. It is ranked 15th largest in the world by land area. Located in the northern region of the archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as well as Quezon City, the country's most populous city. With a population of 53 million as of 2015, it is the fourth most populous island in the world containing 52.5% of the country's total population. Luzon may refer to one of the three primary island groups in the country; as such, it includes the Luzon mainland, the Batanes and Babuyan groups of islands to the north, Polillo Islands to the east, the outlying islands of Catanduanes, Masbate, Romblon and Palawan, among others, to the south. The name Luzon is thought to derive from the Tagalog word lusong, a large wooden mortar used in dehusking rice. Luzon was inhabited by Negrito people before Austronesians from Taiwan displaced them; the Austronesian groups were divided further into two types of nations.
Highland civilizations were based in the mountains and had built up plutocracies based on agriculture, such as the Igorot Society, responsible for building the Banaue Rice Terraces. Meanwhile, maritime states were split among Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms, Muslim principalities, ethnoreligious tribes, who had trading connections with Borneo, Java, India, Korea and China before the Spanish established their rule. From just before the first millennium, the Tagalog and Kapampangan peoples of south and central Luzon had established several major coastal polities, most notable among them those of Maynila and Namayan; the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the first Philippine document written in 900AD, names places in and around Manila Bay as well as Medan in Indonesia. These kingdoms were based on leases between village rulers and landlords or Rajahs, to whom tributes and taxes were levied; these kingdoms were coastal thalassocracies based on trade with neighboring Asian political entities at that time.
There was a Sino-Buddhist country in nearby Mindoro called the country of Ma-i. According to sources at the time, the trade in large native Ruson-tsukuri clay jars used for storing green tea and rice wine with Japan flourished in the 12th century, local Tagalog and Pangasinense potters had marked each jar with Baybayin letters denoting the particular urn used and the kiln the jars were manufactured in. Certain kilns were renowned over prices depended on the reputation of the kiln. Of this flourishing trade, the Burnay jars of Ilocos are the only large clay jar manufactured in Luzon today with origins from this time. During the 1300s, the Javanese-centered Hindu empire of Majapahit ruled over Luzon as recorded in the epic poem Nagarakretagama, which stated that they had colonies in the Philippines at Saludong and Solot; the kingdoms of Luzon regained independence from Majapahit after the Battle of Manila and Sulu reestablished independence and in vengeance, assaulted the Majapahit province of Poni before a fleet from the capital drove them out.
The Yongle Emperor instituted a Chinese Governor on Luzon during Zheng He's voyages and appointed Ko Ch'a-lao to that position in 1405. China had vassals among the leaders in the archipelago. China attained ascendancy in trade with the area in Yongle's reign. Afterwards, some parts of Luzon were Islamized when the former Majapahit province of Poni broke free, converted to Islam, imported an Arab prince from Saudi Arabia, in the person of Sharif Ali, became the Sultanate of Brunei, a nation that expanded its realms from Borneo to the Philippines and set up the Kingdom of Maynila as its puppet-state as well as incorporate the newly converted Sultanate of Sulu by a royal marriage. However, other kingdoms resisted Islam, like the Wangdom of Pangasinan which had remained a tributary state to China and was a Sinified kingdom which maintained trade with Japan. In the 1500s, people from Luzon were called Lucoes and they established many overseas communities within the Indo-Pacific and were employed in trading and military campaigns across Southeast Asia.
The Portuguese were the first European explorers who recorded it in their charts as Luçonia or Luçon and inhabitants were called Luçoes. Edmund Roberts, who visited Luzon in the early 19th century, wrote that Luzon was "discovered" in 1521. Many people from Luzon had active-employment in Portuguese Malacca. Lucoes such as the Luzon spice magnate Regimo de Raja, based in Malacca, was influential and the Portuguese appointed him as Temenggong or a governor and chief general responsible for overseeing of maritime trade, at Malacca; as Temenggung, he was the head of an armada which traded and protected commerce between the Indian Ocean, the Strait of Malacca, the South China Sea, the medieval maritime principalities of the Philippines. His father and wife carried on his maritime trading business after his death. Another important Malacca trader was Curia de Raja who hailed from Luzon; the "surname" of "de Raja" or "diraja" could indicate that Regimo and Curia, their families, were of noble or royal descent as the term is an abbreviation of Sanskrit adiraja.
Pinto noted that there were a number of Lucoes in the Islamic fleets that went to battle with the Portuguese in the Philippines during the 16th century. The Sultan of Aceh gave one of them the task of holding Aru in 1540. Pinto says one was named leader of the Malays remaining in the Moluccas Islands after the
Calayan, Cagayan
Calayan the Municipality of Calayan, is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Cagayan, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 16,702 people, it is located in the Luzon Strait north of Luzon Island. The town is composed of four of the five major islands of the Babuyan Islands namely: Calayan, Camiguin and Babuyan Island. Calayan Island is the largest of the Babuyan Islands. Fuga Island, the fifth island within the Babuyan Islands, is part of Aparri municipality. Calayan is home to the Calayan rail, a flightless bird identified as a separate species in 2004 and endemic to Calayan Island; the municipality's name came from the Ibanag language mean "where laya is abounded". A mission headquarters was established on Calayan Island in 1722. During the Spanish colonial administration regime, the administrators were Don Licerio Duerme in 1896, Don Pedro Abad in 1897, Don Angel Escalante during 1898–1902. Administratively, the Calayan island was part of the Batanes group of islands.
From 1902, Calayan was brought under Cagayan Province. However, this change of administrative control resulted in isolation of the islanders as transport communications were lacking. In 1916, Fray Andres Sanchez and Fray Geronimo Morer, Dominican Fathers, visited this island and gave the island its name, it was only in 1954 that the Governor of Jose P. Carag, came to Calayan; the next visit by a governor was only in 1981, by Justiniano P. Cortez, when a mobile government was organized to improve the health conditions of the people and to distribute medicine and food items such as rice, canned goods, seeds. A repeat of this mission occurred in 1982. In 1940, during World War II, American Forces, who came by the USS Princeton, occupied the island; this was welcomed by the people of Calayan as it ushered prosperity to the island as well as provision of medicine and other items of utility. Schools were established by the American forces and they functioned as teachers with English as the medium of instruction.
They introduced adult education programmes. In return, the Calayanos offered gifts to the soldiers such as ancient jars, sea shells and handicrafts. On 8 December 1941, the Calayan group of islands became occupied by Japanese Imperial Forces. During the early liberation period in 1944, the combined Filipino and American Forces seized the Japanese garrison, moved the Japanese prisoners to concentration camps in Luzon; the rocky northern coast line of the Calayan Island was the scene of a disaster when the warship Datu Kalantiaw, which had served during World War II and subsequently under the Philippine flag, was hit by Typhoon Clara. The ship ran aground on 21 September 1981. Rescue and recovery operations were launched by the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood together with the Philippine Navy units "in a most adverse weather environment," and could recover only 49 bodies of the 79 who perished which were taken to Manila to be handed over to the next of kin of the dead. Calayan Island is located about 24 miles west-south-west of Babuyan Island off the north coast of the Philippines and belongs to the Babuyan Islands group in the China Sea.
The island is hemmed between Aparri and Batanes islands and it is larger than the Fuga Island, 25 miles away. It is the second district in the province of its 29th municipality; the land area of the island is 494.53 square kilometres. It has a rough rectangular shape with rolling hills, spread over a length of 23 kilometres; the island consists of mountainous and uneven land, with the highest land in the centre, with low gaps in places. The hill ridge runs through the middle of the island and is forested; the Mt. Calayan, once an active volcano is the highest peak here; the island is of volcanic origin and has rich deposits of perlite, a greyish white rock, called as the "wonder rock". There are white sand beaches. Four rivers drain the island. Coral limestones are seen at both the lower levels of the island; the eastern part of the island has basaltic columns. The populated areas on the island are Calayan Magsidel on the south coast. Calayan town is the largest among the Babuyan Island group and it is a small fishing center.
The port of Calayan is used for shipping goats, hogs and timber. There are three floodplains. Tidal coral flats that protect the sandy beaches between the settlements of Dilam and Dibay are a distinct feature; the present access is by outrigger boats locally called lampitaw, which takes the islanders from Calayan to the port of Aparri and Claveria on the west coast of the Cagayan Province where an airport to operate small aircraft is under construction. Calayan is politically subdivided into 12 barangays. Weather conditions are wet with heavy rainfall occurring during November and December; the cold winds are north-easterly winds. The island is affected by typhoons. Calayan Island publishes tide tables and solunar tables, daily forecasts for high tides and low tides, other fishing-related data such as the lunar phase, tidal coefficient and moon rising and setting times, hours of maximum fish activity and weather conditions; this data is useful for all fishing operations in the Calayan Island, apart from navigation of other commercial and transport vessels.
In the 2015 census, the population of Calayan was 16,702 people, with a density of 100 inhabitants per square kilometre or 260 inhabitants per square mile. Thick forest is found in the hill ridge, in the centre of the island; the forest cover is
.svg)
