The Paricutin volcano in Mexico was the first Volcano of its kind to have its entire life cycle documented by modern science when it erupted 80 years ago.

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Edited  by |ANNA sam

  North America   section -  CJ journalist

SAN JUAN PARANGARICUTIRO, Mexico  - 1 march 2023

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About a hundred geologists, volcanologists, and seismologists visited the site of The Paricutin volcano last week to celebrate the anniversary, exchange experiences, and talk about how to prevent a disaster.

Parícutin is a cinder cone volcano located in the Mexican state of Michoacán, near the city of Uruapan and about 322 kilometers (200 mi) west of Mexico City 

Paricutín presented the first occasion for modern science to document the full life cycle of an eruption of this type. During the volcano's nine years of activity, scientists sketched and mapped it and took thousands of samples and photographs. By 1952, the eruption had left a 424-meter-high (1,391 ft) cone and significantly damaged an area of more than 233 square kilometers (90 sq mi) with the ejection of stone, volcanic ash, and lava. Three people were killed, two towns were completely evacuated and buried by lava, and three others were heavily affected. Hundreds of people had to permanently relocate, and two new towns were created to accommodate their migration. Although the larger region still remains highly active volcanically, Parícutin is now dormant and has become a tourist attraction, with people climbing the volcano and visiting the hardened lava-covered ruins of the San Juan Parangaricutiro Church.

In 1997, CNN named Parícutin one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. The same year, the disaster film Volcano mentioned it as a precedent for the film's fictional events.

The volcano surged suddenly from the cornfield of local farmer Dionisio Pulido in 1943, attracting both popular and scientific attention.

 

The surrounding landscape in western Mexico includes pine-tree-covered peaks of ancient volcanoes, green avocado groves, and a church steeple that overlooks the place where lava buried it decades ago.

Volcanoes are still being born all over the world and scientists believe that another will form in the volcanic field stretching across this region, they do not know when.

 The ground is still hot atop the crater of Paricutin — the first volcano of its kind to have its full life cycle documented by modern science when it erupted 80 years ago.

Volcanoes are still being born around the globe and scientists believe another will form in the volcanic field spanning across this region, they just don’t know when.

That’s why about a hundred geologists, volcanologists and seismologists visited Paricutin last week to mark the anniversary, share experiences and talk about how to prevent disaster.

Paricutin’s birth and nine-year eruption were a cornerstone in the study of the relatively small kind of volcano that erupts only once, said Stavros Meletlidis, a Greek researcher at Spain’s National Geographic Institute.

The world’s most famous volcanos already were thousands of years old when they threw up their catastrophic eruptions: Mount Vesuvius in Italy which buried Pompeii in 79 A.D.; Mount Tambora in Indonesia which killed tens of thousands in 1815.

A team of geologists from the U.S. Department of the Interior and Mexican scientists visited the site 20 times between 1943 and 1945 and summarized the eruption in a report more than a decade later. On that initial day, there was a mild explosion followed by “a small eruptive column carrying dust, and some hot stones arose from this new vent,” the report said.

“After about 8 hours of such activity the new volcano began to roar and to hurl out quantities of incandescent bombs with great force,” it said. Within six days, it reached a height of 167 meters (548 feet), the report said.

Curious children tried to get close “to see the lava move, little by little,” said Abel Aguilar, motioning like waves with his hand. He was 5 at the time.

The landscape went from a “small and beautiful volcanic monster” to a “desolate and wiped out the world” of dying trees and homes filling with ash,

When geologists arrived, they consoled the community because they were able to explain what happened and — importantly, provide work,

Paricutin’s lava eventually covered seven square miles (18.5 square kilometers). Its slow advance allowed residents of the surrounding communities to relocate to land donated by the government.

In the years leading up to the 2021 eruption of La Palma, clusters of tremors had increased in frequency a week before the eruption. Also, deformities on the surface suggested magma was pushing up. Two days before the eruption there was a strong smell of sulfur in springs monitored by scientists.

Tremors in recent years including a burst late last year have raised fears that another volcano could appear, said Luis Fernando Lucatero, the local civil defense coordinator. Scientists later confirmed last year’s quakes were superficial with no magma rising toward the surface.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Geophysics Institute has installed seismographs in key locations to monitor the volcanic field, and trained local leaders to detect other signals.

Denis Legrand, one of the volcanologists on the project, said more equipment and personnel are needed because, with the current number of stations, some tremors could go unnoticed until it is too late to react.

A year and a half after the Paricutin eruption began, residents of the largest area town of San Juan left in a procession behind the image of their patron saint and rebuilt their town and church elsewhere. The old town was later buried in 50 feet (15 meters) of lava.

While the volcano today draws visitors who bring an important source of income, the buried church is a reminder of what the earth unleashed.