Sometimes a volcano blooms overnight
February 20, 2024
A Tuesday Newsday Classic Updated
Geologically, nine years is a very short time period. But for farmer Dionisio Pulido of Paricutin, Mexico, the event which began at 4 p.m. on February 20, 1943, forever altered his life in a matter of moments.
As he is quoted in the Infallible Wikipedia:
“‘At 4 p.m., I left my wife to set fire to a pile of branches when I noticed that a crack, which was situated on one of the knolls of my farm, had opened . . . and I saw that it was a kind of fissure that had a depth of only half a meter. I set about to ignite the branches again when I felt a thunder, the trees trembled, and I turned to speak to Paula; and it was then I saw how, in the hole, the ground swelled and raised itself 2 or 2.5 meters high, and a kind of smoke or fine dust – grey, like ashes – began to rise up in a portion of the crack that I had not previously seen . . . Immediately more smoke began to rise with a hiss or whistle, loud and continuous; and there was a smell of sulfur.’
“He tried to find his family and oxen but they had disappeared so he rode his horse to town where he found his family and friends, happy to see him alive. The volcano grew fast and furiously after this. Celedonio Gutierrez, who witnessed the eruption on the first night reported:
‘…when night began to fall, we heard noises like the surge of the sea, and red flames of fire rose into the darkened sky, some rising 800 meters or more into the air, that burst like golden marigolds, and a rain like artificial fire fell to the ground.’”
And thus began an eruption which provided scientists an opportunity to study and record how a volcano is formed. During this time the volcano not only destroyed Pulido’s farm but forced the permanent evacuation of two towns, caused the deaths of three people (but not the farmer!), grew to 1,341 feet, and allowed scientists to witness the entire life cycle of a volcano.
Also from the Infallible Wikipedia:
“The importance of the Parícutin eruption was that it was the first time that volcanologists were able to fully document the entire life cycle of a volcano. The event brought geologists from all over the world, but the principal researchers were William F. Foshag of the Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Jenaro Gonzalez Reyna from the Mexican government, who came about a month after the eruption started and stayed for several years. These two wrote detailed descriptions, drew sketches and maps and took samples and thousands of photographs during this time. Many of these are still used today by researchers. Foshag continued to study the volcano until his death in 1956. Between 1943 and 1948, almost fifty scientific articles were published in major journals about the volcano, with even more since. The worldwide effort to study Parícutin increased understanding of volcanism in general but particularly of scoria cone formation.”
It was quite likely I saw this documentary as a child and it was this that first sparked my interest in volcanoes. Some might call it an unhealthy obsession. But whatever it is I have a distinct memory of sitting in a darkened classroom and learning about this volcano.
Back in the 1960’s, every elementary school had an AV – that is Audio Visual – component. Manned by the kids who, today, rule the tech world, it was an unglamorous job (sort of like being a crossing guard or a hall monitor) which required said geeky boy (it was all boys at the time – just the way it was) to wheel the tall carts into classrooms and get it set up so the class could watch whatever educational program our teacher managed to snag so she (or he) could get a few minutes of down time. To be fair, WE unruly students loved those days also. But I digress.
Atop the cart which we had at Nob Hill Elementary in Yakima was a black and white TV connected by wires to a very crude version of video equipment. Once it was set up, off would go the lights and some item of interest would flicker to life.
As a child seeing a volcano literally grow out of the ground where it had just been a field was terrifying. Could that happen in MY backyard? Being that my natural state was to worry about such things I’m pretty certain I became quite concerned for my home. No doubt we learned about other deadly volcanoes: Mount Vesuvius, of course, and the most fascinating of all Krakatoa. Oh, and did I mention that on nice days I’d often see Mt. Adams – one of five Washington State volcanoes – off in the distance?
Of course my mother no doubt assured me that Mt. Adams was a dormant volcano and that Yakima was not prone to sudden volcanic eruptions and my family continued to live in blissful calm. It was only later in a college geology class that I learned Yakima sits on top of what is known as the Columbia River Basalt Group, which was a series of volcanic flows, that eventually covered about 81,000 square miles AND had depths up to 5,900 feet. That’s a whole lot of basalt which no one can take for granite… it was a gneiss fact to know.
Of course that was millions and millions of year prior, so of course there was no danger. Well, that was until May 18, 1980… when THAT myth was blown to pieces. I might have covered stubby Mt. St. Helens in another Tuesday Newsday article or two.
A couple of years ago our son moved to Guadalajara, Mexico. And until recently I hadn’t thought much about Mexican volcanoes. Of course I did know that the Pacific ring of fire which, in addition to being earthquake prone, also had a few volcanoes…913 to be exact. Whoa.
Mexico, specifically the region which stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea which starts near Puerto Vallarta and extends east to Guadalajara and then Mexico City and ending just north of Veracruz, has 23 of these volcanoes in a region known as the Trans-Mexican Volcanic belt.
So now I have new volcanoes to worry about. Of course I shouldn’t be concerned that Volcan de Colima, also known as Volcan de Fuego, is a mere 78 miles from where my son now lives. Or that Volcan de Fuego erupted as recently as January 2017. Or that our son went hiking on neighboring volcano Nevado de Colima – which is 3 miles north of Volcan de Fuego – in January of this year. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about!
For reference, Paracutin is much, much further away from Guadalajara, more like 150 miles how the crow flies. The next time I’m in Mexico I plan to take a much closer look at the landscape to see how many of Mexico’ volcanoes I can identify.
For those who want to learn more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Par%C3%ADcutin
Not sure if this is the video I saw but the music alone is enough to instill terror into a child….
And a few more articles and linkes about one of my favorite topics:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_River_Basalt_Group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_de_Colima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_Nevado_de_Colima_National_Park
Barbara DeVore 