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Report on Popocatepetl (Mexico) — 27 November-3 December 2019


Popocatepetl

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 27 November-3 December 2019
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2019. Report on Popocatepetl (Mexico) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 27 November-3 December 2019. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (27 November-3 December 2019)

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 26 November-3 December there were 124-187 steam-and-gas emissions from Popocatépetl, some of which contained ash through 1 December. An explosion was recorded at 1036 on 26 November. Another explosion at 0233 on 28 November produced an ash plume that rose 1 km above the crater rim and drifted NW. The event also ejected incandescent material onto the flanks as far away as 1.5 km from the crater. 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)