CENAPRED reported that there were 19-204 steam-and-gas emissions, sometimes containing minor amounts of ash, rising from Popocatépetl each day during 9-16 August. A minor explosion was recorded at 0839 on 10 August and a moderate explosion was detected at 1528 on 11 August. Minor ashfall was reported in the municipality of Ecatzingo, State of Mexico. An explosion at 1952 on 13 August was followed at 2125 by minor amounts of ashfall in Tetela del Volcán. The Alert Level remained at Yellow, Phase Two (the 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)