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Random pictures
In this photo released by the civil defense unit of the state government of Jalisco, the eruption plume from the initial stage of the powerful vulcanian explosion at Colima volcano on May 23, 2005, has been captured on film. The collapsing eruption column loaded with ash and rock fragments has not yet fully developed, but the flanks of the volcano are already covered by the impacts of ballistics. (AP Photo/Proteccion Civil del estado de Jalisco-HO)
In this photo released by the civil defense unit of the state government of Jalisco, the eruption plume from the initial stage of the powerful vulcanian explosion at Colima volcano on May 23, 2005, has been captured on film. The collapsing eruption column loaded with ash and rock fragments has not yet fully developed, but the flanks of the volcano are already covered by the impacts of ballistics. (AP Photo/Proteccion Civil del estado de Jalisco-HO)


Colima volcano
Stratovolcano 3850 m / 12,631 ft
Western Mexico, 19.51°N / -103.62°W
Current status: restless (2 out of 5)
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Colima volcano eruptions:
1519, 1560, 1576, 1585, 1590, 1602(?), 1606, 1611-1613, 1622, 1690, 1711, 1743(?), 1744, 1749(?),1769, 1770, 1771, 1780, 1794, 1795, 1804, 1806-1809, 1818, 1819, 1866, 1869, 1870-71, 1872-73, 1874, 1875-78, 1879-80, 1880-81, 1882-84, 1885-1886, 1887, 1889-90, 1890, 1891-92, 1893-1902, 1903, 1904-1906, 1908-09, 1913, 1926-1931(?), 1941(?), 1957-1960, 1961-62, 1963-70, 1973(?), 1975-76, 1977-1982, 1983(?), 1985-86, 1987, 1988(?), 1991, 1994, 1997-2011, 2013-ongoing
Typical eruption style:
Dominantly explosive. Construction of lava domes, vulcanian eruptions and strombolian activity. In near-constant activity since 1994.
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Volcano news: Colima Volcano (Mexico)

Colima volcano (Mexico): intense ativity continues, lava flow advances

Tuesday Oct 04, 2016 09:49 AM | BY: T

Colima volcano's lava flow this morning
Colima volcano's lava flow this morning
Aerial view of Colima's summit lava dome and flow (left) on 30 Sep (image: Civil Protection Jalisco)
Aerial view of Colima's summit lava dome and flow (left) on 30 Sep (image: Civil Protection Jalisco)
The activity of the volcano remains very intense. Magma continues to rise into the lava dome in the summit crater and spill over the SW flank as a broad, viscous lava flow that has by now reached the base of the cone.
Detaching masses from the flow generate continuous glowing rockfalls and occasional pyroclastic flows (extremely dangerous and mobile hot block and ash flows). The volume of the lava dome, which has now completely filled the crater, gas been estimated to have reached and surpassed 1.2 million cubic meters.
Strong degassing and explosions generate a steam and ash plume that rises about 3000 m most of the time.
Civil protection has started to evacuate the nearest communities around the volcano including the hamlet of Yerbabuena, La Becererra and Juan Barragan, and imposes an access restriction of 10 km radius around the volcano.
Previous news
Colima volcano Volcanic Ash Advisory: CONT VA EMS
Tuesday, Oct 04, 2016
Volcanic Ash Advisory Center Washington (VAAC) issued the following report: ... [more]
Colima volcano Volcanic Ash Advisory: POSSIBLE ONGOING EM.
Monday, Oct 03, 2016
Volcanic Ash Advisory Center Washington (VAAC) issued the following report: ... [more]
Colima volcano Volcanic Ash Advisory: VA NOT DETECTED
Sunday, Oct 02, 2016
Volcanic Ash Advisory Center Washington (VAAC) issued the following report: ... [more]
Colima volcano Volcanic Ash Advisory: VA EM AROUND 0330Z
Sunday, Oct 02, 2016
Volcanic Ash Advisory Center Washington (VAAC) issued the following report: ... [more]
Colima volcano Volcanic Ash Advisory: EARLIER VA EMS
Saturday, Oct 01, 2016
Volcanic Ash Advisory Center Washington (VAAC) issued the following report: ... [more]

Background:

Colima volcano is one of the most active in North America and one of the potentially most dangerous ones. It has had more than 30 periods of eruptions since 1585, including several significant eruptions in the late 1990s. Scientific monitoring of the volcano began 20 years ago. 

The Colima volcanic complex is the most prominent volcanic center of the western Mexican Volcanic Belt.  It consists of two southward-younging volcanoes, Nevado de Colima (the 4320 m high point of the complex) on the north and the 3850-m-high historically active Volcán de Colima at the south. 
A group of cinder cones of probable late-Pleistocene age is located on the floor of the Colima graben west and east of the Colima complex. Volcán de Colima (also known as Volcán Fuego) is a youthful stratovolcano constructed within a 5-km-wide caldera, breached to the south, that has been the source of large debris avalanches.  Major slope failures have occurred repeatedly from both the Nevado and Colima cones, and have produced a thick apron of debris-avalanche deposits on three sides of the complex.  Frequent historical eruptions date back to the 16th century.  Occasional major explosive eruptions (most recently in 1913) have destroyed the summit and left a deep, steep-sided crater that was slowly refilled and then overtopped by lava dome growth.
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Source: GVP, Smithsonian Institute - Colima information
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