Warning Issued After Mexican Volcano Erupts
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MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s government on Thursday warned people living in the shadow of Popocatepetl volcano to prepare to flee after the mountain spat out red-hot rocks in a strong late-night eruption.
An official at the Disaster Prevention Center’s monitoring station said the 17,992-foot snowcapped volcano 33 miles southeast of Mexico City spewed blazing rocks out of its crater at 10:20 p.m.
The rocks fell up to three miles away, and national broadcaster Televisa said a light rain of ash was falling on nearby villages.
After several days of intensified rumblings and modest exhalations of rock and ash, disaster prevention officials said a new lava cap could be forming in the crater of Popocatepetl, which the Aztecs called “smoking mountain.”
A full-scale eruption of the mountain would force the evacuation of at least 70,000 people who live within a 15-mile radius, but officials say it would pose no serious danger to Mexico City and its area’s 18 million inhabitants.
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