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Satellite images of Popocatepetl volcano (c)Google Earth View
Satellite images of Popocatepetl volcano (c)Google Earth View
Popocatépetl volcano
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: ash venting and explosions, ash up to 2 km height, incandescent tephra

Wednesday Jun 06, 2012 12:05 PM | BY: T

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.
Previous news
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]
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Gas-and-ash plumes were observed daily rising as high as 1.5 km above crater. Plumes drifted NW, NE, SE, and SW. ... [more]
Thursday, May 17, 2012
CENAPRED reported that during 8-10 May multiple gas-and-ash plumes rose 1.5 km above Popocatépetl's crater and drifted NE. Incandescent fragments ejected from the crater landed on the N and E flanks as far as 500 m away. ... [more]
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
CENAPRED reported that during 2-3 May activity at Popocatépetl increased significantly. ... [more]
Monday, May 07, 2012
Popocatépetl continues to produce ash and steam plumes and occasional explosions, as new magma rises to the summit crater to build up a new lava dome. At night, the dome is glowing brightly. ... [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


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