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Report on Popocatepetl (Mexico) — 28 November-4 December 2018


Popocatepetl

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 28 November-4 December 2018
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2018. Report on Popocatepetl (Mexico) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 28 November-4 December 2018. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (28 November-4 December 2018)

Popocatepetl

Mexico

19.023°N, 98.622°W; summit elev. 5393 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


CENAPRED reported that each day during 28 November-3 December there were 16-79 steam-and-gas emissions from Popocatépetl. Periods of volcanic tremor were detected almost daily. Explosions at 0509 and 0922 on 2 December ejected incandescent material onto the upper flanks, and generated ash plumes that rose 2.5 km above the crater rim and drifted NE. More explosions at 1543 and 1745 produced ash plumes that rose 1.5 km and drifted NE. The Alert Level remained at Yellow, Phase Two (middle level on a three-color scale).

Geological Summary. Volcán Popocatépetl, whose name is the Aztec word for smoking mountain, rises 70 km SE of Mexico City to form North America's 2nd-highest volcano. The glacier-clad stratovolcano contains a steep-walled, 400 x 600 m wide 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 to the south. The modern volcano was constructed south of the late-Pleistocene to Holocene El Fraile cone. Three major Plinian eruptions, the most recent of which took place about 800 CE, have occurred 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 Pre-Columbian time.

Source: Centro Nacional de Prevencion de Desastres (CENAPRED)