Fact File; Popocatepetl
Location; Popocatepetl is
70 km (43 mi) southeast of Mexico City, Magma Type- Predominantly Andesitic, but it has also erupted large volumes of Dacite. Magma produced in the current cycle of activity tends to be a mixture of the two.
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.
General Background; 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 pre-Columbian time.
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 pre-Columbian time.
This 2003 photo from the International Space Station shows a
pair of volcanoes in Mexico. As part of the “Ring of Fire” stretching around
the Pacific, Mexico hosts several of the world’s most continually active
volcanoes, including the massive Popocatepetl (Aztec for "Smoking
Mountain") at left. The neighbouring volcano is Iztaccíhuatl (the
"Woman in White"). The faint plume emanating from Popocatepetl’s
summit crater shows the ever-present hazard the volcano represents to the 25
million people living in the region, including the nearby city of Amecameca, as
well as the metropolitan centres of Mexico City to the northwest and Puebla to
the east.
Credit: NASA
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