Small emissions of steam, gas, and small amounts of ash continued at Popocatépetl. The Mexico City MWO reported that on 17 August at 1514 an ash emission produced a cloud that rose to 7.3 km a.s.l. The Washington VAAC reported that GOES-8 satellite imagery did not show an ash plume, but did show an occasional hotspot. CENAPRED reported that recent activity was related to the growth of a new lava dome inside the crater. The volcano remained at Alert Level Yellow Phase II.

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)