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Popocatepetl volcano news & eruption update

Popocatepetl volcano (Mexico): strong explosion last evening

Another very strong explosion, similar to the one a week ago, occurred last night at 18:57 local time.
The vulcanian-type eruption ejected a shower of incandescent lava bombs onto the upper slopes of the volcano and generated an ash plume that rose a few kilometers.
Time-lapse of the eruption:


The activity of the volcano has not changed significantly during the past months. Intermittent small to sometimes large explosions and strong gas / steam emissions accompany the slow lava effusion in the summit crater in the form of a small flat cake-like lava dome. With each of these larger explosions, a part or all of the dome is destroyed and a new cycle begins.

Предыдущие новости

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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