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Report on Colima (Mexico) — 22 February-28 February 2017


Colima

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 22 February-28 February 2017
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2017. Report on Colima (Mexico) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 22 February-28 February 2017. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (22 February-28 February 2017)

Colima

Mexico

19.514°N, 103.62°W; summit elev. 3850 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


On 24 February the Centro Universitario de Estudios e Investigaciones de Vulcanologia - Universidad de Colima reported low-intensity explosions at Colima during the previous week. The internal crater remained about 250 m in diameter and 50-60 m deep; previous lava domes had been destroyed in late September and mid-November 2016. Scientists who visited the terminus of a 4.5-km-long pyroclastic flow that had been emplaced on 8 January observed that the flow was blocky with very little ash, and that the local vegetation had not been burnt, suggesting that the flow was low-temperature. The Unidad Estatal de Protección Civil de Colima noted that the public should not enter the 8-km-radius exclusion zone, and also stay away from ravines.

Geological Summary. The Colima complex is the most prominent volcanic center of the western Mexican Volcanic Belt. It consists of two southward-younging volcanoes, Nevado de Colima (the high point of the complex) on the north and the historically active Volcán de Colima at the south. A group of late-Pleistocene cinder cones is located on the floor of the Colima graben west and east of the complex. Volcán de Colima (also known as Volcán Fuego) is a youthful stratovolcano constructed within a 5-km-wide scarp, breached to the south, that has been the source of large debris avalanches. Major slope failures have occurred repeatedly from both the Nevado and Colima cones, producing thick debris-avalanche deposits on three sides of the complex. Frequent recorded eruptions date back to the 16th century. Occasional major explosive eruptions have destroyed the summit (most recently in 1913) and left a deep, steep-sided crater that was slowly refilled and then overtopped by lava dome growth.

Sources: Centro Universitario de Estudios Vulcanológicos (CUEV) - Universidad de Colima, Unidad Estatal de Protección Civil de Colima