Mexico hosts some of the most legendary volcanoes on earth with a history of
eruptions dating back to the ancient times of the Aztek and the Mayan cultures.
Considering the immense size of Mexico (Mexico is larger than all the other
states of Central America together, or about 1/2 the size of Europa), we find a
wide variety of different volcanic systems related to the restlessness of the Pacific-plate,
the Cocos plate and the North American plate. The movement of these plates
generates a complex puzzle of subduction and rift zones responsible for
the hundreds of extinct, dormant as well as active volcanoes in Mexico.
During our intense crossing of Mexico within only 6 weeks together with Marco
and Nadia (Vinelz/CH) we concentrated on the two currently most
active volcanoes: Fuego de Colima and Popocatepetl.
Expedition Summary " Fuego de Colima" (Dec 2002)
First we would like to thank to Dr. Mauricio Breton Gonzales of the
Observatorio Vulcanologico at the University of Colima for his time, his
help (during his christmas vacation) and for the great documentation and infos
about Fuego de Colima. We will never forget that You offered us Your last
"Journal of volcanology and geothermal research"!.
The andesitic strato volcano "Fuego de Colima" lies in southwestern
Mexico at the border of Jalisco and Colima within a system of rift zones east of
the so called Middle America Trench that generated at least 12 other major
volcanos within about 200km around Fuego de Colima. While Fuego has had
significant eruptive activity over the last five centuries - leading to its
designation as the most active volcano in Mexico -, the other volcanos in
the region are considered dormant or extinct. Some like "Nevado de
Colima" would be just as beautiful, characteristic and interesting to look
at.
Fuego de Colima's "Plinian" and
"Subplinian"
Eruptions/Explosions.
(Film-Extractions 18.-22. Dec 2002)
Andesitic block lava flows (daytime left, at dusk -
right)
Within the latest centuries Fuego de Colima showed major eruptions about every
one hundred years. The most violent were the Plinian eruptions (great
pyroclastic eruptions) in 1818 and 1913. The 1818 eruption is considered the
biggest eruption in the 19th century which even effected Mexico City with strong
ash falls (470km east of Colima). Following the 1913 eruption Fuego entered a
period of apparent inactivity until 1961. Since 1997 Fuego shows increased
continuous activities that lead to the speculation that it is evolving
towards the culmination of an eruptive cycle that could parallel the eruptions
of 1818/1913.
390'000 persons living close (within 40 km) to Fuego are considered in danger
from pyroclastic flows, scoria falls and lahars, that could occur during a major
eruptive event. The work of Dr. Mauricio Breton Gonzales and his collegues
to closely monitor the volcano and prepare measures to prevent such possible
disaster is imminent. Check out the webpage of the University of Colima for
more information about current seismological data and the eruptive status of the
mountain: http://www.ucol.mx
At present (December 2002) people are not allowed within a 6km radius to
the mountain and the village of Yerbabuena was partly evacuated.
There are military stations blocking the access on the few major routes to the
mountain, although we did not have a hard time to get the passing permits after
they registered our cars.
Fuego de Colima at present (december 2002) emits huge lava bolders that tumble down the
mountain every couple of minutes. Sometimes they are the size of
shipping-containers and, while hitting other big boulders,
they crash and produce a spectacular firework with noise and tremor which we will never
forget.
For Franziska and me, Fuego de Colima so far is our closest experience of
observing a series of block lava flows/eruptions of this impressive size.
But to tell about our expedition... - let's start at the beginning:
