Malepunyo Range (also known as Malipunyo RangePhilippine Commission
"Annual Reports of the War Department, 1906, Vol. 9"
pg. 384. Washington Government Printing Office, 1907. or Mount Malarayat) is an extinct

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

located on

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

Island in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. The mountain range is located between the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

s of

Batangas Batangas, officially the Province of Batangas ( tl, Lalawigan ng Batangas ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region on Luzon. Its capital is the city of Batangas, and is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and La ...

Laguna Laguna (Italian and Spanish for lagoon) may refer to: People * Abe Laguna (born 1992), American DJ known as Ookay * Andrés Laguna (1499–1559), Spanish physician, pharmacologist, and botanist * Ana Laguna (born 1955), Spanish-Swedish ballet d ...

and

Quezon Quezon, officially the Province of Quezon ( tl, Lalawigan ng Quezon), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon Regions of the Philippines, region on Luzon. Kalilayan was the first known name of th ...

. It is popular among mountaineers, and has three interconnected destinations: Mt. Malepunyo, the highest; Bagwis Peak (also known as ''Mt. Susong-Cambing''); and Mount Dalaga (also known as ''Manabu Peak'').

History

The Malepunyo Range is an inactive volcano with its caldera facing south along the vicinity between

Lipa City Lipa (), officially the City of Lipa ( fil, Lungsod ng Lipa), is a 1st class component city in the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 372,931 people. It is the first city charter in the pro ...

and

San Antonio, Quezon San Antonio, officially the Municipality of San Antonio ( tgl, Bayan ng San Antonio), is a 4th class municipality in the province of Quezon, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 35,891 people. Located in the wester ...

. By the 1990s the Malepunyo Mountain Range has been erroneously tagged as ''Malarayat Mountain Range'' due to the famous country club located at its western slope named after the Malarayat Hill. Mount Malepunyo is its highest peak located at Barangay Talisay,

standing at

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

by the ridge of its

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

. The second highest peak of the range is Mt. Dalaga standing at

situated at the boundary of

Santo Tomas, Batangas Santo Tomas, officially the City of Santo Tomas ('' fil, Lungsod ng Santo Tomas''), is a 1st class component city in the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 218,500 people. With the continuou ...

and Alaminos, Laguna. During the 1990s, the name was changed by the locals of Santo Tomas to ''Manabu'' as a shortened Tagalog phrase ''Mataas na Bundok'' which means "High Mountain". At the center of the mountain range is a cliff known as Bagwis Cliff by the locals, yet due to its shape that resembles a goat's breast, it is also called as ''Susong-Kambing'' (English: Goat's Breast). In time, mountaineers have also mistakenly named this cliff as ''Susong Dalaga'' (English: maiden's breast) which is actually the oldest name of Manabu Peak. A discontinued highway project connecting San Pablo City and

that traverses the central part of the mountain range made way for the creation of what the mountaineers call as ''Biak na Bundok'' (en. Sliced Mountain).

Physical Characteristics

The Malepunyo mountain range has four notable peaks: :*Mount Malepunyo (Malipunyo) above mean sea level :*Mount Dalaga (Manabu Peak / Susung Dalaga) above mean sea level :*Bagwis Peak (Susung Dalaga / Susung Cambing) above mean sea level :*Malarayat Hill above mean sea level

Geology

Mount Malepunyo is part of Makiling-Malepunyo Volcanic Complex.

Mount Makiling Mount Makiling (also known as Mount Maquiling), is an inactive stratovolcano located in the provinces of Laguna and Batangas on the island of Luzon, Philippines. The mountain rises to an elevation of above mean sea level and is the highest fe ...

, located on the southwest rim of

Laguna de Bay Laguna de Bay (Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon/Lake of Bay, Laguna, Bay"; tl, Lawa ng Bay, ), also known as Laguna Lake, is the List of lakes of the Philippines, largest lake in the Philippines. It is located southeast of Metro Manila, b ...

, is a 16-kilometer-diameter stratovolcano that reaches 1115 meters above sea level. The cone is formed by a

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of bu ...

lahar A lahar (, from jv, ꦮ꧀ꦭꦲꦂ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a river valley. Lahars are extreme ...

, airfall, and lava deposits. Trachyandesites, trachydacites, and

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

are found in the lavas. Welded ash-flow tuffs attest to the eruption's Plinian origin. The La Mesa tuff ring, Bijiang, Mapinggon, and Masaia are all examples of smaller satellitic edifices. To the south of Mt. Makiling lies a severely eroded north-south trending volcanic range, including Mapinggon, Bulalo, and Malepunyo. The higher portions of this composite volcano are dominated by lava flows and breccias, while pyroclastic flows and lahars dominate the eastern flanks. The age of the andesites from Mount Malepunyo ranges from 1.10 Ma to 0.63 Ma (De Boer and others, 1980; Oles and others, 1991).

Product

The mountain range is a famous source of Alamid Coffee due to

civet A civet () is a small, lean, mostly nocturnal mammal native to tropical Asia and Africa, especially the tropical forests. The term civet applies to over a dozen different species, mostly from the family Viverridae. Most of the species diversity ...

cats that chew on coffee beans and ferments the seeds inside its digestive system. The fermented coffee beans are then excreted along the trails and is cleaned and pulverized for coffee preparation.

Hiking

The jurisdiction of the Malepunyo Range is separated into two. The Manabu peak is under the jurisdiction of Santo Tomas, Batangas to which its jump-off is at Sitio Sulok. It resembles an easy trail to which a cross has been erected on its summit while a plateau beside it is used as a saddle camp. The southern half is under the jurisdiction of Lipa City, Batangas and the jump-off is located at Sitio Talisay. To which the trail leads to the summit of Mount Malepunyo.(2007-10-25
"Mt. Malepunyo (Mt. Malarayat)"
Pinoy Mountaineer. Retrieved on 2011-09-26. A class-4 trail connects Malipunyo to Manabu peak which passes through the vicinity of Bagwis Peak and the grassland plateau leading to Biak-na-Bundok and by the dense forest of the mountain range towards the plateau campsite of Manabu.

References

External links

Mt. Malepunyo (Mt. Malarayat)
on Pinoy Mountaineer *{{cite gvp, name=Malepunyo, vn=273807, access-date=2021-06-25 Malepunyo Malepunyo Malepunyo Landforms of Batangas Landforms of Laguna (province) Landforms of Quezon Pleistocene stratovolcanoes Stratovolcanoes of the Philippines