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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

Saturday Sep 29, 2012 08:52 AM | BY: T

Popocatépetl with crater glow this morning

SO2 plume from Popocatépetl on 28 Sep 2012 (NOAA)

During the past 24 hours, 10 weak explosions occurred. Glow is visible at night and a strong SO2 plume appears on satellite images.

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Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update: steaming and strong SO2 emission, occasional weak steam and ash explosions

Friday, Sep 28, 2012

5 weak explosions and tremor pulses were registered between 26-27 Sep by CENAPRED. Satellite data show a strong SO2 plume. [more]

Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update: infrequent weak steam explosions, weak crater glow

Thursday, Sep 27, 2012

Only 5 small exhalations were reported during 25-26 Sep. [more]

Popocatepetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update

Wednesday, Sep 26, 2012

The number of weak explosions has picked up again with 26 events recorded between 24-25 Sep. Also, yesterday at 11:54 h, an earthquake with magnitude M 1.7 occurred. ... [more]

Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update: infrequent small explosions, strong steamins, crater glow

Tuesday, Sep 25, 2012

The frequency of explosions has drastically dropped to only about one every 3-4 hours, but lava glow above the crater and strong SO2 emissions indicate that lava continues slowly to rise at the volcano and build up the lava dome in the crater. [more]

Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update: decreasing number of explosions, steam and gas emission

Sunday, Sep 23, 2012

Over the past 24 h, only 5 weak explosions were detected from Popocatépetl. The volcano continues to emit a strong steam and SO2 plume, though, sign that activity continues. [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