Report on Popocatepetl (Mexico) — 30 November-6 December 2022
Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 30 November-6 December 2022
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 2022. Report on Popocatepetl (Mexico) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 30 November-6 December 2022. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.
Popocatepetl
Mexico
19.023°N, 98.622°W; summit elev. 5393 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
CENAPRED reported that there were 38-217 steam-and-gas emissions, sometimes containing minor amounts of ash, rising from Popocatépetl each day during 29 November-6 December. Weather clouds sometimes prevented visual observations of activity. Minor ashfall was reported in Amecameca (20 km NW), Cocotitlán, and Tlalmanalco (30 km NW) during 1-2 December, and in Tepetlixpa (20 km W) during 2-3 December, and in Atlautla (17 km W) and Ozumba (18 km W) during 5-6 December. 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)