Parícutin
| Parícutin | |
|---|---|
Parícutin in 1994
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 2,800 m (9,200 ft) |
| Prominence | 208 m (682 ft) |
| Coordinates | 19°29′34.8″N 102°15′3.6″W / 19.493000°N 102.251000°WCoordinates: 19°29′34.8″N 102°15′3.6″W / 19.493000°N 102.251000°W |
| Geography | |
| Geology | |
| Age of rock | 1941–1952 |
| Mountain type | Cinder cone |
| Volcanic arc/belt | Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt |
| Last eruption | 1943 to 1952 |
| Climbing | |
| First ascent | 1943 |
| Easiest route | Hike |
Parícutin (or Volcán de Parícutin, also accented Paricutín) is a scoria-cone volcano located in the Mexican state of Michoacán, near the city of Uruapan and about 322 kilometres (200 mi) west of Mexico City. The volcano surged suddenly from the cornfield of local farmer Dionisio Pulido in 1943, attracting both popular and scientific attention.
Paricutín presented the first occasion for modern science to document the full life cycle of an eruption of this type. During the volcano's 9 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 kilometres (90 sq mi) with the ejection of stone, 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 be permanently relocated, 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 included Parícutin in its list of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
Parícutin is located in the Mexican municipality of Nuevo Parangaricutiro, Michoacán, 29 kilometres (18 mi) west of the city of Uruapan and about 322 km west of Mexico City. It lies on the northern flank of the Cerros de Tancítaro, which itself lies on top of an old shield volcano and extends 3,170 meters (10,400 ft) above sea level and 424 meters (1,391 ft) above the Valley of Quitzocho-Cuiyusuru, wedged against old volcanic mountain chains and surrounded by small volcanic cones with the intervening valleys occupied by small fields and orchards or small settlements, from groups of a few houses to those the size of towns.
The volcano lies on, and is a product of, the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, which runs 900 kilometres (560 mi) west-to-east across central Mexico. It includes the Sierra Nevada mountain range (a set of extinct volcanoes) as well as thousands of cinder cones and volcanic events. Volcanic activity here has created the Central Mexican Plateau and rock deposits up to 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) deep. It has also created fertile soils by the widespread deposition of ash and thereby some of Mexico’s most productive farmland. The volcanic activity here is a result of the subduction of the Rivera and Cocos plates along the Middle America Trench. More specifically, the volcano is the youngest of the approximately 1,400 volcanic vents of the Michoacán-Guanajuato volcanic field, a 40,000 square kilometres (15,000 sq mi) basalt plateau filled with scoria cones like Parícutin, along with small shield volcanoes, maars, tuff rings and lava domes. Scoria cones are the most common type of volcano in Mexico, appearing suddenly and building a cone-shaped mountain with steep slopes before going extinct. Parícutin's immediate predecessor was El Jorullo, also in Michoacán, which erupted in 1759.
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Wikipedia