More than 100 webcams are positioned throughout Mexico via Webcams de Mexico to “share and promote the beauty of Mexico,” and one of those webcams captured spectacular footage of the eruption of the Popocatépetl volcano.
The time-lapse video of Thursday’s eruption of the volcano known by local natives as “Smoking Hill” shows an amazing surge of lava and a column of ash that was sent nearly two miles high, according to El Universal.
It was visible from Mexico City that is located 48 miles northwest of the volcano.
Abigail Cervantes, deputy director of Cenapred Publications, told Reuters that the event was within the bounds of “normal” eruptions and that plumes of smoke previously had reached up to six miles high.
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“On December 21, new high-resolution cameras were installed,” Cervantes told El Universal. “That’s why it looked more spectacular.”
From El Universal: “The volcano, the second-highest in Mexico with an elevation of 5,550 meters above sea level, is one of the most closely monitored in the world, not least because of its proximity to Mexico City and around 26 million people.”
Photos courtesy of the Mexican government.
