He Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano spewed gas, smoke and ash on Monday, which led the educational authorities to suspend face-to-face classes in some areas of three states, one day after the government raised the warning level about the volcano’s activity.
Activity at the 17,797-foot (5,425-meter) high volcano located about 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City and known as “El Popo” has increased over the past week. No evacuations have been ordered, but authorities are preparing for that scenario. and have asked people to stay out of a 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) radius around the summit.
volcano activity temporarily suspended flights at the two airports in the Mexican capital over the weekend.
On Monday, an ash column extended hundreds of kilometers (hundreds of miles) to the east, spreading over the Bay of Campeche, according to a report from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). English).
On Sunday, the national coordinator of Civil Defense, Laura Velázquez, said at a press conference that the volcano’s traffic light alert system remained yellow, but had gone up to phase 3. Although she warned that at the moment there is no risk to the population.
In this phase, large domes form and explode with increasing intensity, spewing incandescent rocks into the air and pyroclastic flows down their flanks.
Velázquez said that only three of the volcano’s 565 explosions since September had been large and that the current activity was not the largest this century.
The Department of Defense was preparing to activate 6,500 soldiers if necessary. Hostels were also being prepared.
Nails 25 million people live within a radius of 100 kilometers (60 miles)the majority in the metropolitan area of Mexico City.
Popocatépetl came to life in 1994 after decades of inactivity and registered periods of increased activity from 2000 to 2003 and from 2012 to 2016.