Earth Data Encyclopedia

Boundary Data of Luzon Island of Philippines

Zhu, Y. Q.^*  Liu, C.  Shi, R. X.

Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Keywords: Luzon island; Philippines; geography of the world; data encyclopedia

Luzon Island (mainland part) is located in northern Philippines. It is the largest, most densely populated, and the most developed island of Philippines. Manila, the capital city of Philippine, lies at the southern part of Luzon Island. Based on the boundary dataset of Luzon Island, extracted from Google Earth images, Luzon Island has an area of 104,948.73 km² and a coastline of 4,955.53 km. It extends between 12°32′N-18°40′N and 119°42′E-124°12′E, and is bordered by Philippine Sea to the east, South China Sea to the west, Sibuyan Sea to the south, and over Luzon Channel facing Taiwan Island to the north. Luzon Island is roughly the shape of rectangle from south to north, and most of it located in the north of Manila. Two peninsulas, Batangas peninsula and Bicol Peninsula extend to south and southeast. Mountains and hills, mainly in the north, occupy more than two-thirds of the island. Other topographic features are volcano, plain, mountain, hills, etc. Luzon Island has a typical tropical monsoon rainforest climate, characterized by high temperature, intense rainfall, and frequent typhoons. Rivers in Luzon Island are usually short. The longest river is Cagayan River. Other famous rivers are Abra River, Agno River, Pampanga River, and Bicol River. Luzon Island also has many small lakes, such as the famous volcanic lake named Taal Lake, and the largest lake Inner Lake.