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Mexico’s Popocatepetl Volcano Spews Ash, Lava After Alert Level Raised

Reuters
By Reuters
March 29, 2019US News
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Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano unleashed a powerful explosion in the evening of Thursday, March 28, after Mexican authorities raised the alert level for the volcano to indicate increasing intensity.

The natural fireworks show consisted of a spectacular flash of light followed by dazzling incandescent material spilling out from the crater and down the mountainside.

According to reports, the explosion occurred at 19:48 local time and a massive column of gas and ash was sent 2,500 meters (8,202 feet) above the volcano’s crater and then dispersed to the southeast.

Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention have warned people to stay away from Popocatepetl, saying that in the previous 24 hours it had observed more than 200 discharges from the volcano, some 50 miles to the southeast.

The center raised the volcano’s alert level to yellow phase three from yellow phase two, indicating possible magma expulsion and explosions of increasing intensity. It is the third-highest warning on the center’s seven-step scale, according to the Mexican Civil Protection agency.

Popocatepetl has spewed smoke and ash over the last few years, and a major eruption in 2000 forced the evacuation of nearly 50,000 residents in three states surrounding the peak.

The agency has previously said that similar intensifications of activity in the 5,450 meter (17,900 foot) volcano could provoke big explosions capable of sending incandescent fragments out over considerable distances, as well as ash showers.

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