Philippine archipelago
The Philippine archipelago is an island group in Southeast Asia composed of more than 7,000 islands, including Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
Luzon: The largest and most populous island in the Philippines, in the archipelago’s north. It anchors the northern island group and contains the national capital region.
Philippine Sea Plate: An oceanic tectonic plate east of the Philippines that moves beneath the Philippine Mobile Belt. Its westward subduction helps shape trenches and volcanic arcs east of the islands.
Sunda Shelf: A shallow continental shelf connecting mainland Southeast Asia with Borneo, Sumatra, and Java. Lower sea levels once exposed it as a migration route near the southern Philippines.
Biodiversity of the Philippines: The variety of species and ecosystems found across the Philippine islands. Island isolation and varied habitats have produced distinctive, often endemic wildlife.
Spanish colonization of the Philippines: The period of Spanish colonial rule over the Philippines, beginning in the sixteenth century and ending in 1898. Spanish administration and missions connected many islands under a colonial government.
Visayas: A central Philippine island group comprising major islands such as Panay, Negros, Cebu, and Samar. Its islands form the archipelago’s central region between Luzon and Mindanao.
Philippine Mobile Belt: A tectonically active zone of crustal blocks and faults that includes much of the Philippine archipelago. Its complex movement helps account for the islands’ intense earthquakes and deformation.
Wallacea: A biogeographic region of Indonesian islands between the Sunda Shelf and Sahul. Its animal distributions help explain the Philippines’ distinct biogeographic position.
Coral Triangle: A tropical marine region spanning parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste. Philippine waters form a major part of this global center of marine biodiversity.
Philippine Revolution: An armed struggle against Spanish rule that began in 1896 and led to the declaration of Philippine independence in 1898. The uprising challenged colonial power across an island group governed from Manila.