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Satellite images of Popocatepetl volcano (c)Google Earth View

Popocatépetl volcano

Popocatepetl is one of Mexico's most active volcanoes. After almost 50 years of dormancy, "Popo" came back to life in 1994 and has since then been producing powerful explosions at irregular intervals.
In the past centuries befor European invasions, large eruptions produced giant mud flows that have buried Atzteque settlements, even entire pyramids.

Stratovolcano 5426 m / 17,802 ft
Central Mexico, 19.02°N / -98.62°W
Popocatépetl volcano eruptions:
1345-47, 1354, 1363(?), 1488, 1504, 1509(?), 1512, 1518, 1519-23(?), 1528, 1530, 1539-40, 1542, 1548, 1571, 1580, 1590, 1592-94, 1642, 1663-65, 1666-67, 1697, 1720, 1802-04, 1827(?), 1834(?), 1852(?), 1919-22, 1923-24, 1925-27(?), 1933, 1942-43, 1947, 1994-95, 1996-2003, 2004-ongoing
Typical eruption style:
Dominantly explosive, construction of lava domes. Plinian eruptions at intervals of several centuries or few thousands of years, vulcanian and strombolian activity in intermittent phases.
Popocatépetl webcams / live data
Last earthquakes nearby

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Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update: gas, steam and ash venting, occasional explosions

Wednesday Jun 27, 2012 12:05 PM | BY: T

SO2 plume from Popocatépetl (NOAA)

Small volcano-tectonic earthquakes, spasmodic and harmonic tremor, along with small gas and ash emissions, and occasional explosions continue.
A large SO2 plume is produced by the volcano as well.

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Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update: gas and steam venting, occasional explosions

Wednesday, Jun 27, 2012

Gas and steam venting picked-up at Popocatepetl volcano in the past 24 hours. SO2 output from the volcano had increased the past few days. [more]

Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update: incandescence at summit crater, sporadic weak to moderate explosions, steam and ash emissions

Wednesday, Jun 20, 2012

Incandescence from the crater was occasionally visible at night. During 13-15 June gas-and-ash plumes that rose above the crater sometimes drifting NW and W. Ejected tephra fell onto the E, N, and W flanks, as far away as 500 m from the crater. [more]

Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update: ash and steam venting, occasional explosions, crater glow

Wednesday, Jun 13, 2012

CENAPRED reported that during 6-12 June gas-and-ash plumes from Popocatépetl rose above the crater, sometimes as high as 2 km, and drifted NNW, E, ESE, SSE, and S. ... [more]

Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update: ash venting and explosions, ash up to 2 km height, incandescent tephra

Wednesday, Jun 06, 2012

during 30 May-5 June gas-and-ash plumes from Popocatépetl rose as high as 2 km above the crater and drifted mostly W and SW, but also NW and ENE. Cloud cover occasionally prevented observations of the plumes and crater. Incandescence from the crater was visible on most nights. Incandescent fragments were ejected from the crater on 5 June. [more]

Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update: ash venting and explosions, ash columns rising up to 2 km, incandescent tephra ejected occasionally

Friday, Jun 01, 2012

During 23-29 May gas-and-ash plumes from Popocatépetl rose up to 2 km above the crater and drifted in multiple directions. ... [more]

Volcán Popocatépetl, whose name is the Aztec word for smoking mountain, towers to 5426 m 70 km SE of Mexico City to form North America's 2nd-highest volcano.  The glacier-clad stratovolcano contains a steep-walled, 250-450 m deep 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 south of the volcano.  The modern volcano was constructed to the south of the late-Pleistocene to Holocene El Fraile cone.  Three major plinian eruptions, the most recent of which took place about 800 AD, have occurred from Popocatépetl 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 precolumbian time.

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Source: GVP, Smithsonian Institution - Popocatepetl information