Philippines: relief, climate and vegetation
Located in southeast Asia is the Philippines. This island nation is an archipelago that consists of more than 7,000 islands are bathed by waters of the Pacific on its eastern shores, and various seas in its western shores. Its mountainous, tropical climate, dense forests and shape its landscape.
Philippine Relief
The Philippine archipelago is mountainous in most of the surface. There are three main areas:
The great mountains of Borneo, which resurfaces in Palawan, Mindoro, and Luzon’s western mountains.
Another mountain range, also in Borneo, which extends through the archipelago of Jolo, Mindanao emerges and continues through the central part of Luzon.
One last mountain which rises on the island of Celebes, as the mountains that are located in central and eastern Mindanao, and extends north of the island of Luzon.
On the island of Luzon are two major systems, the Sierra Madre and the Cordillera Central, being the largest of the archipelago, where the mountain is located Pulog, with 2928 meters high. These two systems are open to the north, the plains of Cagayan.
In Mindanao, at its eastern edge, is Mount Apo, which at 2953 meters altitude is the highest in the archipelago.
Climate of the Philippines
The Philippines has a tropical climate but strongly influenced by the monsoon, being nearly equatorial islands that are further south. There are two seasons: dry winter and spring, and a rainy season in summer and autumn.
If there is a very characteristic feature of the climate in the Philippines is its excessively humid, softening in areas near the sea.
The winds make an appearance in a north-south from October to January, and in the opposite direction from April to August. The dreaded and devastating monsoon, in its most powerful, is felt in the Philippine archipelago and is situated under the action of tornadoes produced by severe barometric depressions that are in the South China Sea.
The average temperature is around 26 and 27 º C, with no significant temperature variation in the level ground, but larger in the mountains. Rainfall varies by relief, as it can be said that generally, the annual average exceeds 1,000 mm. East and Surigao areas can register to 3740 mm of rain per year.
The Philippine forest
Dense and varied, so you can define the forest in the Philippines and is covering much of the ground and has a great diversity of species.
In the higher regions the predominant species are the Himalayan continental, and various conifers. Among the vast huge tree there stands, above all, the mahogany, the wood is particularly hard. Towards the coast, are the coconut palms and mangroves in some areas, which adorn the landscape.
More than 7,000 islands
Of the more than 7,000 islands and islets that make up the Philippine archipelago, the largest are Luzon in the north and Mindanao in the south.
After these two large islands are followed by importance Samar, Negros, Panay, Mindoro, Leyte, Cebu, Bohol, Masbate, and Palawan.
On the island of Bohol are the Chocolate Hills called one of the main attractions of the island. It is named after the color brown in summer becomes the thick carpet of grass that covers all the hills.