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Popocatépetl volcano, Central Mexico: news & activity updates

Updated: Mar 29, 2024 14:11 GMT-

Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update

Tue, 30 Apr 2013, 16:15
Activity has decreased again to average levels of the past months. CENPARED reported less than 1 weak steam-gas-ash emission per hour during the 24 hours since yesterday. A slightly more powerful explosion this morning produced an ash plume rising 800 m and ejected incandescent bombs onto the NE crater rim.

Popocatépetl volcano (Mexico): increased activity

Mon, 29 Apr 2013, 09:55
Explosion from Popocatépetl yesterday morning
Explosion from Popocatépetl yesterday morning
Activity at the volcano has picked up in the past 48 hours. Following an earthquake swarm on Saturday with volcanic-tectonic quakes of magnitudes up to 2.3, which was probably the result of a new magma batch rising, an increase in small emissions occurred yesterday with 71 events registered during 24 hours. Read all
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Background:

Volcán Popocatépetl, whose name is the Aztec word for smoking mountain, towers to 5426 m 70 km SE of Mexico City to form North America's 2nd-highest volcano.  The glacier-clad stratovolcano contains a steep-walled, 250-450 m deep crater.  The generally symmetrical volcano is modified by the sharp-peaked Ventorrillo on the NW, a remnant of an earlier volcano. 
At least three previous major cones were destroyed by gravitational failure during the Pleistocene, producing massive debris-avalanche deposits covering broad areas south of the volcano.  The modern volcano was constructed to the south of the late-Pleistocene to Holocene El Fraile cone.  Three major plinian eruptions, the most recent of which took place about 800 AD, have occurred from Popocatépetl since the mid Holocene, accompanied by pyroclastic flows and voluminous lahars that swept basins below the volcano.  Frequent historical eruptions, first recorded in Aztec codices, have occurred since precolumbian time.


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Source: GVP, Smithsonian Institution - Popocatepetl information


Satellite images of Popocatepetl volcano (c)Google Earth View
Satellite images of Popocatepetl volcano (c)Google Earth View
Stratovolcano 5426 m / 17,802 ft
Central Mexico, 19.02°N / -98.62°W
Current status: erupting (4 out of 5) Popocatépetl volcano eruptions:
1345-47, 1354, 1363(?), 1488, 1504, 1509(?), 1512, 1518, 1519-23(?), 1528, 1530, 1539-40, 1542, 1548, 1571, 1580, 1590, 1592-94, 1642, 1663-65, 1666-67, 1697, 1720, 1802-04, 1827(?), 1834(?), 1852(?), 1919-22, 1923-24, 1925-27(?), 1933, 1942-43, 1947, 1994-95, 1996-2003, 2004-ongoing
Typical eruption style
Dominantly explosive, construction of lava domes. Plinian eruptions at intervals of several centuries or few thousands of years, vulcanian and strombolian activity in intermittent phases.
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tour to see the ongoing eruption of Mexico's most active volcano
6 days / 5 nights - Easy
Price 1650 €
no scheduled dates at present