Popocatepetl volcano news & eruption update

Popocatepetl volcano (Central Mexico) activity update

An increase in activity occurred last night from 20:05 h local time. Small to moderate explosions with ash emissions started to become more frequent. Incandescent tephra was thrown to up to 400-700 m distances onto the northern and northeastern slope of the volcano (see picture).
At 22:30 h, the number of explosions increased to become near continuous. Glowing bombs were ejected up to 700 m distance from the crater and an ash column drifted to the northeast. This process was accompanied by continuous volcanic tremor.
At the moment, the intensity of the eruption is decreasing again, and CENAPRED reports no significant changes in other monitored parameters. Similar peaks in activity have occurred several times since last year and still fall within the current status level of "Yellow Phase 2",- moderate emissions, sometimes with ash plumes and sporadic explosions with incandescent fragments thrown to a short distance from the crater.
Light ash fall is expected in the towns of Santiago Xalitzintla, San Nicolas de los Ranchos, San Andrés Calpan, Huejotzingo. (CENAPRED)

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

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