Ash and Smoke: Warning Signs from Popocatépetl - By: Kennen Sparks 1

response would be a more unified response when the Ash and Smoke: Warning volcano erupts violently. As the volcano has become more active, authorities have issued warnings to stay out of Signs from Popocatépetl the exclusion zone, which radiates about seven miles from the crater. The volcano, accessible to climbers, does By: Kennen Sparks bring tourists to the region, but as volcanologist Ana Lillian Martín del Pozzo warns, “it’s not exciting—it’s silly” to 04/01/2019 climb it. Popocatépetl has not yet erupted violently, but it is not a question of “if”, but rather of “when.” A volcanic eruption cannot be considered as a lone event, but also is part of a larger global scale. Popocatépetl may dominate the the view from Puebla and Mexico City, but putting it on the global scale places it within the Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean.

Popocatépetl volcano

By: Kennen Sparks Menacingly looming above the Mexican countryside, the volcano Popocatépetl presents a constant threat to the central area of Mexico. In the past few weeks, Popocatépetl hasbeen sending signals that it could be erupting. A massive eruption—a Plinian in volcanology terms—would present a serious threat to the region. Regions are groups of geographical entities that have comparable trends.

Using region to help understand the Popocatépetl causes the area to be reimagined. Rather than being separate metropolitan areas or states, a region combines the individual entities into one. Mexico City anchors the area, but Puebla is an important center of manufacturing as well. Mexico City and Puebla are situated in central Mexico 66 miles apart and are home to nearly 25 million people combined, with the volcano sitting in between the two. As one of the most populous regions on the continent, a serious eruption would be extremely disruptive. One volcanologist from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México says that, at worst, the volcano would clog the capital with ash and bring the metropolis to a halt. Pyroclastic flows (a current of hot gas and heavy ash) and ash would decimate the region’s agricultural industry which most rural municipalities depend on. One eruption in the 1660s sent enough ash into the air that the sky over Puebla remained dark for three days. By putting both Mexico City and Puebla into a region, rather than only their respective district and state, the scale of a volcanic eruption can be understood. Also, a regional