Batan Island
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Distinguish Template:Infobox islands Batan Island (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell<ref>Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed. (Template:ISBN; Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1997), p. 119.</ref>) is the main island of Batanes, an archipelagic province in the Philippines. It is the second largest of the Batanes Islands, the northernmost group of islands in the Philippines.
Geography
Batan is a dumbbell-shaped volcanic island, part of the Luzon Volcanic Arc. The northern part of the island is dominated by the Template:Convert high active volcano, Mount Iraya, which last erupted in 1454.<ref name="gvp">"Iraya". Global Volcanism Program. Retrieved on 2013-04-11.</ref> The lower portion of the island is the inactive volcano Mount Matarem, about Template:Convert tall.<ref>"Inactive Volcanoes Part 5". Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Retrieved on 2013-04-11.</ref><ref>"Mount Mataram". Google Maps. Retrieved on 2013-04-11.</ref> A hilly narrow neck of land, about Template:Convert long and from Template:Convert wide, separates the two volcanoes of the island. At around the vicinity of Mount Matarem, the island is at its widest at about Template:Convert.
Sabtang Island, the nearest island to Batan is located about Template:Convert southwest of the southern tip of the island. Itbayat, the largest island of the archipelago, is about Template:Convert northwest of the central part of Batan.
Geology
The Batan Volcanic Complex includes the Pliocene Matarem composite volcano of basalt and andesite flows, 5.8 to 1.7 Ma, on the southern part of the island, and the Quaternary Mt. Iraya basalt and andesite lava flows on the northern part of the island. The central isthmus has an outcrop of Late Miocene andesitic flows, 9 - 7 Ma. Western Mt. Iraya has a pyroclastic flow deposit dated 1,480 years B.P. including ash and pumice. The periphery of Mt. Matarem includes lahar and tuffaceous deposits. The Miocene Batan Group are sedimentary rocks that includes the Liguan, Caracaran and Bilbao formations. The Middle Miocene Bilbao limestone overlies the Early Miocene Caracaran siltstone, which overlies the Liguan limestone. The Liguan and Bilbao include coal measures up to 300 meters thick.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
History
Japanese invasion
The Japanese invasion of the Philippines began with the invasion of Batan Island by a 490-man naval combat unit and a number of air corps troops aboard two transports escorted by one destroyer and four torpedo boats. This was the first landing on American territory, which transpired on the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Japanese forces quickly secured the existing small airfield outside Basco without resistance and began expansion work immediately as a forward base of operations against Luzon. Work was discontinued only a few days later as the success of the Japanese bombing of Clark Field rendered an airfield in Basco redundant. On 10 December 1941, the naval combat force was redeployed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Governance
Four of the six municipalities of Batanes are located on the Template:Convert long island including the provincial capital of Basco. The other municipalities are Ivana, Mahatao and Uyugan.
Gallery
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The hilly landscape of Batan Island with Mount Matarem in the distant left
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Mount Iraya
