Volcanoes
Mexico has 37 Holocene volcanoes which are inactive and 12 active volcanoes. The three most active volcanoes in the country are the Popocatepetl, Colima, and El Chichon.
Almost all of the country's active and recently dormant volcanoes are located in a broad belt of high relief that crosses Mexico from west to east: the Volcanic Axis. Altitudes in this region vary from a few hundred to several thousand meters.
The Citlaltépetl (Pico de Orizaba) is the highest volcano in Mexico with an elevation of 5,675 meters above sea level!
The best way to do protect yourself and your family is to follow the advice of local officials. Local authorities will provide you with information on how to prepare for a volcanic eruption, and if necessary, on how to evacuate (leave the area) or take shelter where you are.
Be prepared to:
Shelter in place and close all windows/turn off ventilation. You will need to protect yourself from any hazardous fumes.
Drive/evacuate when indicated it’s safe to do so.
Keep your car or truck engine switched off. Avoid driving in heavy ashfall. Driving will stir up ash that can clog engines and stall vehicles. If you do have to drive, keep the car windows up and do not operate the air conditioning system. Operating the air conditioning system will bring in outside air and ash.
If you do have to evacuate, avoid the area until it’s safe to return.
There are Volcano Warning traffic lights that use green, yellow, and red lights to identify the predictability of an eruption occurring at the current time. Green = Normal; little to no activity. Yellow = Alert; increased seismic activity. Red = Alarm; major activity/evacuate.
Sources:
https://geo-mexico.com/?p=6242
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/49462/pico-de-orizaba-mexico
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanoes_in_Mexico#/media/File:Map_mexico_volcanoes.gif
https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/volcanoes/during.html
Great job on this post. There was a lot of valuable information and also a lot of new. I didn't know there was that many volcanoes located in Mexico and how so many of them are active which is scary
ReplyDeleteThis was very interesting, thank you. I also had no idea that Mexico had so many active volcanoes. When was the most recent eruption, how long ago? Their volcano warning system reminds me of our fire danger system.
ReplyDeleteHi Genesis. It is very interesting to me that Mexico has so many volcanoes, and there really aren't that many in the U.S. The ones that are in the United States are more so found in Alaska , so I thought it was pretty interesting that there are so many volcanoes still considered active In Mexico. It makes sense however do to the geographic location of this country and the location it has to the San Andreas Fault. In looking over steps on how to stay safe it is crazy to envision yourself in that position of having to actually navigate your way through a potential volcanic eruption as we are fortunate enough to not have to really think about it, but it just put's into perspective some of the everyday things that other people deal with daily and how they are almost non-existent here.
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