Report on Popocatepetl (Mexico) — 14 December-20 December 2022
Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 14 December-20 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, 14 December-20 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 53-196 steam-and-gas emissions, sometimes containing minor amounts of ash, rising from Popocatépetl each day during 13-20 December. Explosions were recorded at 0747 and 0849 on 15 December. A series of 12 explosions were recorded midweek, at 2107 and 2143 on 17 December and at 0102, 0247, 0404, 0440, 0604, 0614, 0639, 0741, 0752, and 0957 on 18 December. Some of the explosions ejected incandescent material onto the upper flanks based on posted images and video. Two minor explosions were detected at 1323 and 2252 on 18 December. A minor explosion was recorded at 0250 on 19 December and two moderate ones occurred at 0045 and 0639 that same day. 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)