Popocatépetl Volcano
Updated: Apr 18, 2024 07:29 GMT -
Stratovolcano 5426 m / 17,802 ft
Central Mexico, 19.02°N / -98.62°W
Current status: erupting (4 out of 5)
Central Mexico, 19.02°N / -98.62°W
Current status: erupting (4 out of 5)
Last update: 11 Apr 2024 (Volcanic Ash Advisory)
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.
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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
Latest nearby earthquakes
Time | Mag. / Depth | Distance / Location |
Background
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
Popocatépetl Volcano Photos
Popocatepetl is one of Mexico's most active volcanoes and also part of an Aztec legend, a warrior who fell in love with a young woman (Iztaccihuatl) who died while he was...
Volcano Tecajete, Popocatepetl in clouds (background), view from San Pedro Cholula , Mexico (Photo: WNomad)
Latest satellite images
Popocatépetl Volcano Tours
Mexico
Popocatépetl Volcano Special
tour to see the ongoing eruption of Mexico's most active volcano
6 days / 5 nights - Easy
Price 1650 €
Price 1650 €
no scheduled dates at present