This gallery is home to the numerous igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks that make up the islands of the Philippines. You can find hardened lavas, like an andesite boulder from the 1814 eruption of Mt. Mayon, to rocks created deep within our Earth’s mantle. Some of them are more than 250 million years old, even older than the dinosaurs! At the center of the gallery is a large relief map of the Philippines, allowing you to see the geography of the country in three dimensions. Featured here are the layers of rocks underlying the Cagayan Valley Basin, Visayan Sea Basin and the Cotabato Basin – sliced and pulled-up for everyone to see where the rocks layers fold and break. Adjacent to this is a section devoted to destructive natural events like volcanic eruptions, lahars, and earthquakes that negatively affect Filipinos and the environment. Museum viewers will also learn the difference between a tsunami and a storm surge, or journey back to the 1991 Pinatubo eruption – the 2nd largest eruption in the 20th century through this window to the past (quadroscope). This gallery also features an activity corner where kids can put themselves in a geologist’s shoes by getting hands-on tips in identifying common rocks. Pointers in proper cleaning, maintenance, and storing of rocks and the needed tools are also present to them to start their very own rock collection. Last but not the least, the gallery also has a mini-theater where you can appreciate some of the many beautiful rock formations scattered throughout the country. Learn how the Chocolate Hills or the Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River came to be, and maybe give your long-awaited vacation a new perspective.