Move Back to the UK from the Philippines

Very few areas of the Philippines are free from volcanic activity and seismic events. Palawan is the main area. Most of Mindanao isnt including Davao.

Davao missed the last massive typhoon related disaster by a whisker, last year.

"THE Davao Region needs volcanologists and seismologists to monitor tectonic and volcanic activity in the region.

Desiderio Cabanlit, officer-in-charge of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) in Davao Region, said there are less than 300 volcanologists and seismologists in the country.

Currently, about three seismologists are assigned in the Davao field office, while there is no volcanologist assigned in the region.

Cabanlit, who was guest on Friday’s Kapihan sa PIA (Philippine Information Agency), said the region needs a resident volcanologist since they would still have to call the central office to verify a volcanic activity in the region.

Davao has one active volcano -- Leonard Kniazeff in Maco, Compostela Valley Province. Its "caldera" lake is commonly called Lake Leonard.

There is one inactive volcano, the country's tallest peak Mt. Apo.

"We need experts in volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis," said Cabanlit noting that Davao Region is also prone to tsunami.

He said that five earthquakes in negligible intensities are recorded in the region daily, all are tectonic in origin.

There is a manned Seismic Monitoring Station located in Mintal established in 1993 to monitor ground activity in the region.

Cabanlit said the seismic monitoring equipment has been upgraded twice. An unmanned seismic station in Don Marcelino has also been set-up.

There is an active fault that runs from Surigao City to Davao Oriental, termed as the Mindanao segment of the active Philippine Fault Zone. The highly-populated urban area of Davao City currently has no active fault.

Although Cabanlit said that any movement in the Mindanao segment would also be felt in Davao City. An intensity-8 earthquake in the fault could be intensity 7 in Davao City because of its proximity.

There is also a possibility of a tsunami in the Davao coasts.

During the Japan earthquake in 2011, the tsunamis that devastated the Japanese coasts also reached Davao Oriental even at negligible levels.

"However small, it showed that our coasts can be hit by a tsunami," Cabanlit said.

Cabanlit said that with existing volcanic, seismic and tsunami threats there are needs for more experts in the region.

One problem, he said, in getting additional personnel is the unavailability of seismology and volcanology courses in the country's universities and colleges."



http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/loc...vao-needs-seismologists-volcanologists-234429

I'm with Keith on these thoughts (Post 20).

When I lived in Spain, I noticed all the non-Spanish looking through life with rose-tinted spectacles.
It seems quite normal for people who live in other countries to make things seem better than they are.

The long nose prejudices were something that my wife also found distasteful last time we went to the Phils as a family.

The UK is not straddling the mid atlantic ridge, though Iceland is. Iceland is an expression of the mid atlantic ridge. The UK isnt. By contrast the majority of the Philippines is precisely a part of the Ring of Fire and an expression of it. Quite a significant difference. The UK was once in a similar position to the Philippines but some 400 million years ago when the Lapetus Ocean closed. Subduction and all that goes with it just isn't happening within the vicinity of the UK.

"The British Isles sits in the middle of a tectonic plate, Eurasia. Our nearest plate boundary is at the mid-Atlantic ridge, where the earthquakes are too small to generate tsunami.

The nearest subduction zones to Britain lie at the Hellenic Arc, south of Greece and in the Caribbean"

No subduction zone, no Tsunami.


http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/earthquakes/BritishTsunami.html

Also, courtesy of BGS:

"Why are there no active volcanoes in Britain?

There are several volcanoes in the UK, although they are all long since extinct. For example, there are ‘supervolcanoes’(ones which have had very large eruptions) in Snowdonia and the Lake District, but they are about 450 million years old; Edinburgh Castle is built on a volcano about 350 million years old, and many of the islands in the west of Scotland (Mull, Skye,Rum) are the roots of volcanoes about 60 million years old.

The reason why we haven't had any volcanoes for about 60 million years in Britain is that we are now in a tectonically quiet part of the world. Most volcanoes occur near the edges of the Earth’s tectonic plates but Britain is now a long way from such geologically active areas."

Well yes. What are we saying here?

Faultlines and quakes are everywhere. The magnitude and frequency of occurrence go shooting up in regions close to subduction zones. Like I said before, the UK has seen a past like the Philippines but that was 100s of millions of years ago. Those days are long gone though the evidence still remains.

Krakatoa says it all really.

Our lives on this planet are gone in the blink of an eye.. Life is short..
Enjoy it while it lasts and go out with a bang I say!

Nice tip Tom I'll have to remember about that for our return. Should work out cheaper than buying fitlers for the water jug every month

There has been some good points raised in this thread but for me personally at our age I see the philippines as a temporay settlement at present. Starting a family I just feel more confident the the UK can deliver a standard of living and safety that I've come to expect. My long term goal has always to retire to the philippines and I think I'm still leaning that way. We'll see if my state of mind changes over the next couple of years.

Never say never and stay rigidly flexible

You are going about this in the right way. If I was still working offshore I would probably have done something similar.

The biggest draw at the moment though is once you have a house set up in theory the cost of living is considerably cheaper than the uk, even with the poor exchange rate. Saying that though interest rates are high so for us at the moment everything is paid for in cash.

Swings and round a bouts really.

I would think about living in the Phils but we have kids Stu and I think it is better for them to be schooled in the UK.
The NHS is an equally big factor too.

With kids schooling is the big factor. I just think UK schools will give kids more of a chance on a international level than getting schooled in the PI

My first 2 trips to the UK, I was buying bottled water or boiling water from a kettle. Drove my husband crazy and we never let my father in law see it especially when we are down in Cornwall as he works for the water company.

I got used to it and drink straight from the tap now whenever we go there. Though I like how Cornwall has soft water perfect for tea compared to the hard water in London.

Re education, how do you guys feel about the international / good schools in Manila - International School, British School Manila, Brent International School, Chinese International School, Ateneo De Manila, De La Salle, Xavier School, Immaculate COnception Academy, Poveda Learning Center, Assumption COllege, etc..?

even if i wanted to relocate Manila would like London be at the absolute bottom of any list

^ Why? I absolutely love London! I guess because it's similar to Manila too hehe