The Calamian Islands or the Calamianes is a group of islands in the province of Palawan, Philippines. It includes: *

Busuanga Island Busuanga, is the largest island in the Calamian Group of islands in the province of Palawan in the Philippines. Busuanga Island is the second largest island in the province after Palawan island itself. The island is located halfway between the i ...

Coron Island Coron is the third-largest island in the Calamian Islands in northern Palawan in the Philippines. The island is part of the larger municipality of the same name. It is about southwest of Manila and is known for several Japanese shipwrecks of Wo ...

Culion Island Culion, officially the Municipality of Culion ( tgl, Bayan ng Culion), is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 23,213 people. Culion consists primarily of Culion ...

Calauit Island Calauit Island is an island of the Calamian Archipelago, just off the north-western coast of Busuanga Island. It is part of the municipality of Busuanga in the province of Palawan, Philippines. The entire island was declared as a wildlife sanctu ...

* Malcapuya Island * Banana Island * Pass Island * Calumbuyan Island * ''several minor islets''

History

Historically, the Calamianes was site of the Spanish politico-militar ''Provincia de Calamianes''. It became the site of a Presidio or a Spanish military garrison, and the small group of islands received, almost 100 Spanish and Mexican soldier-colonists in the 1670s. The Spanish Empire later purchased mainland Paragua from the Sultan of Borneo. During the American occupation (1898-1948), the old ''Provincia de Calamianes'' was dissolved and jointly administered with the Island of Paragua as the new Province of Palawan. During the American occupation and up until recently, Culion Island was host to a

leper colony A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Af ...

. Busuanga Island hosts the largest town, Coron, in the Calamian Islands. Coron Island is known for having the cleanest inland body of water in the Philippines, called Kayangan Lake. Calauit Island is known for hosting a number of endangered African animal species. Diving spots, with coral reefs and sunken

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

shipwrecks, also lies within the waters of these islands.

Geology

Part of the

North Palawan Block North Palawan Block is a microcontinental block situated in the western Philippines and the southern tip of the Manila Trench. The North Palawan block is considered to form the northeastern portion of a much larger area of block faulted and foun ...

, Busuanga and Culon islands consist mainly of the Liminangcong

Formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

, a Permian to Late Jurassic

chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a c ...

. This chert forms the distinguishing mountain ranges, with the Middle-Late Jurassic Guinlo Formation clastics forming the valleys on Busuanga. Coron Island is distinguished by its Late Triassic Coron Limestone.

References

External links

* * Archipelagoes of the Philippines Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean Archipelagoes of Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia {{Mimaropa-geo-stub