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Report on Popocatepetl (Mexico) — 26 January-1 February 2011


Popocatepetl

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 26 January-1 February 2011
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2011. Report on Popocatepetl (Mexico) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 26 January-1 February 2011. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (26 January-1 February 2011)

Popocatepetl

Mexico

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

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


CENAPRED noted that steam-and-gas emissions rose from Popocatépetl during 26 January-1 February. An explosion at 2056 on 31 January ejected incandescent fragments as far as 500 m down the E flank and produced an ash plume that rose 2 km and drifted E. The Washington VAAC noted that the ash plume was observed in satellite imagery on 1 February drifting more than 275 km NE.

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.

Sources: Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC), Centro Nacional de Prevencion de Desastres (CENAPRED)