Mexican Volcano Showing Serious Signs Of Life
Just 40 miles from Mexico City, on the border of Puebla and Moreno states sits an 18,000 foot volcano by the name of Popocatépetl which in the Nahautl language means “smoking mountain” and it is showing some serious signs of life.
During the last 11 days the volcano has been venting gases and throwing rocks as far as a mile from its center. What makes this even more worrisome for the scientists who are closely watching the volcano is its relatively close proximity to Mexico City and its population of 9 million people, and a total of 30 million in the potentially affected area.
The National Center for Disaster Prevention (CENAPRED) of Mexico has reported that there has been “62 explusions of medium intensity with the emission of water vapor, gas, ashes, and glowing rocks” between Thursday evening and Friday. As CENAPRED Director Roberto Quaas said a t a recent press conference the scientists watching the situation have no way of predicting if the molten rock in the volcano’s chamber will be released slowly or in a powerful eruption.
At this point there are few measures being taken other than officials beginning to set up shelters in case of a need for evacuation and residents of the area have begun wearing paper filter masks.
via Ars Technica / image courtesy of Wikimedia
Comments
About the Author
Steven Hodson Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).
Related Posts
This Could Be Described As Looking Right Into Hell On Earth [Video] →
Ever Wonder What Would Happen If A Human Fell Into A Volcano? [Video] →
