VA EMS SEEN AS WEB CAM at 19000 ft (5800 m) / VolcanoDiscovery

News from the Popocatepetl volcano and update on the eruption

Background:

The Popocatépetl volcano, whose name is the Aztec word for the smoking mountain, rises to 5426 m 70 km southeast of Mexico City to form the second tallest volcano in North America. The glacier-covered stratovolcano contains a steep-sided crater 250 to 450 m deep. The generally symmetrical volcano is modified by the Ventorrillo with its sharp summit to the northwest, a vestige of a previous volcano.
At least three previous major cones were destroyed by gravitational failure during the Pleistocene, producing massive deposits of debris and avalanches covering large areas south of the volcano. The modern volcano was built south of the El Fraile cone from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene. Three major Pliny eruptions, the most recent of which occurred around 800 AD, have occurred from Popocatépetl since the mid-Holocene, accompanied by pyroclastic flows and voluminous lahars that swept basins beneath the volcano. Frequent historical eruptions, first recorded in the Aztec codices, have occurred since pre-Columbian times.

—

Source: GVP, Smithsonian Institution – Popocatepetl Information