Friday, November 20, 2009

A New Volcano Erupts in Mexico (1943)

A very strange thing happened in Paricutin, Mexico on February 20th, 1943.

This was the day when, with no real warning, the farmer in Paricutin suddenly found himself with a highly explosive cinder cone volcano suddenly sprouting up in his corn field.

Fortunately he and everyone else who was near the sudden flurry of lava and ash which began spreading quickly scorching vast areas of land, had a decent amount of time to escape the impending danger.

The pyroclastic portion of the eruption of the Paricutin volcano continued nearly unabated for almost a year, during which time the lava and ash continued to compact onto itself, growing into a hill with a height of nearly 1,100 feet.

It is officially a dead volcano now but after destroying two entire villages (Paricutin, after which it was named, and San Juan).




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