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Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update

Tue, 27 May 2014, 15:45 | BY: T
Small ash explosion at Popocatépetl yesterday
Small ash explosion at Popocatépetl yesterday
No significant changes have occurred in the volcano's activity during the past weeks. Magma continues to rise, at fluctuating rates, slowly into the summit crater, producing weak intermittent explosions and glow at night.
A small swarm of earthquakes with 6 volcano-tectonic quakes of magnitudes 2.6, 2.7, 1.8, 3.0, 2.6 and 3.0 occurred during 25-26 May.
The alert level remains unchanged at "Yellow Phase 2". (CENAPRED)

Previous news

Thu, 1 May 2014, 08:03

Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update

Small explosion from Popocatépetl yesterday
No significant changes in activity have occurred. CENAPRED reported 73 low-intensity exhalations during 29-30 April, some of which produced small puffs of ash. Glow at the crater remains visible at night. Read all
Mon, 28 Apr 2014, 15:07

Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update

Current image of Popocatépetl (CENAPRED)
Activity at the volcano remains low and essentially unchanged. The frequency of small steam-gas emissions was less than one per hour yesterday. Weak incandescence continues to be visible at the summit at night. ... 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 €
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