Volcano in Mexico Is Quiet Again
The Popocatepetl volcano outside Mexico City settled into a quiet slumber Wednesday after its biggest eruption in more than a millennium, and volcano experts said the worst appeared to be over.
But a spokeswoman for Mexican President Vicente Fox wouldn’t confirm the scientific report, and officials said they will probably keep residents of towns on the volcano’s slopes in shelters at least through Christmas. Soldiers manned roadblocks around the villages to ward off looters and to keep evacuated residents from returning home too early.
The 17,887-foot Popocatepetl sprayed a fountain of hot rock and ash Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, it again looked like a harmless mountain, its crater a dusty ridge surrounded by clouds.
“It’s absolutely quiet. So much so that it’s as if we were talking about another volcano,” said Guillermo Melgarejo, director of civil protection for Puebla state. “Its seismic activity, the tremors, have diminished considerably.”
The volcano has emitted sporadic plumes of ash since it awoke from a nearly 70-year slumber in 1994.
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