In previous millennia there were diverse climate-related upheavals and one of them wiped out an entire civilization when the Popcatapetl volcano erupted. Well is has erupted again this month and this time around it is right near Mexico City.
In recent history Mexico City grew up in an accommodating place just 35 miles from a long-dormant volcano. Well it has just been erupting more than ever. Which is something on the increase over the past few hundred years. And this century is the busiest. Well the recent eruptions in March 2019 sent clouds of ash over 1.5 miles into the sky. The Mexican government has issued yellow alert, one away from mandatory evacuations. It means the chance of eruption again is immediate to high. In fact at one time there was a recording of 200 eruptions in just 24 hours. There is a 7 km no-go zone so far and they are probably watching to see what happens.
So the ash is raining down on Mexico City and surrounds. It’s becoming more common. I looked at some records in Wikipedia about the volcanoes eruptions and they used to be one or two every hundred years. Then in the 1900s it went up to five or six, and now, since the turn of the century there have been over a dozen in the first 20 years alone. Actually the 1500s were very active all century, and the 1600s less so and it became quieter and then suddenly became more active in the 1900s. Now it is really active his past 19 years, there have been 11 incidents of eruption. Lots of small ones obviously, but with the intensity heating up over the course of time lately, it looks like a cause for concern for the entire city of Mexico and about 26 million people in the radius of any fallout.
The volcano is 20 miles from Puebla, the nearest town, and measures are in place to potentially evacuate entire towns of people at this stage. There could not only be ash but also other fallout and even worse, mudflows that engulf entire villages at a time. Curiously the “Smoking Mountain” had been dormant for 50 years until the 1990s. And it has just become more active ever since. There was a major eruption in 1947 and there were evacuations in 1994 and 2000 of thousands at a time. So they are probably prepared for this kind of thing. With 26 million people living within 60 miles of that crater, you are either so used to it or so solid in your faith in the universe or your resignation to fate that you don’t mind the risk.
Admittedly there have been about 14 volcanic events in the past 19 years, so they are definitely used to it. Good for them, Live on the edge. Life is short. Go out hot and clean. Its largest display in 1200 years was the one in 2000 apparently, as if that can be any consolation, though I wonder how you can determine that. If you’re not careful each generation forgets or they just begin to get complacent. Coincidentally the Grand Solar Minimum research in my last post mentions a time of volcano and earthquake with the sun going dormant in sun spot activity in coming years. Don’t move to Mexico City! In 2013 the airport had to be temporarily closed because of ash from an eruption. It goes miles into the sky. There have been about five incidents since 2016, some of them last a while and have multiple eruptions over a few days. Anyway it has only had 15 MAJOR eruptions since the Spanish invaded in 1519.
Well whatever happens, it is yellow alert in Mexico City and yellow vests in Paris. No correlation of course but somehow the signs of the times say it is definitely hotting up and getting exciting, wherever you may be. Let me know what you think – is the planet moving into a time of disruption and upheaval, or is it all just a lot of hot ash?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/popocatepetl-eruption-today-volcano-mexico-ash-cloud-mud-slides-a8829301.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popocat%C3%A9petl
