Volcanoes in Mexico

Mexico has 34 Holocene volcanoes spanning an extraordinary range of geological settings, from the towering stratovolcanoes of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) rising above 5,000 m to submarine fissure vents on the East Pacific Rise at depths of 2,700 m below sea level. The TMVB, stretching approximately 1,000 km east to west across central Mexico at roughly 19°N latitude, contains the country’s most famous and most dangerous volcanoes, including [[volcano:popocatepetl|Popocatépetl]], [[volcano:orizaba-pico-de|Pico de Orizaba]], and [[volcano:colima|Volcán de Colima]]. With 240 documented eruptions and a VEI distribution reaching VEI 6, Mexico possesses one of the most hazardous volcanic landscapes in the Americas.

Popocatépetl, located just 70 km southeast of Mexico City (population 21.8 million in the metropolitan area), has been in a state of heightened activity since 1994 and places more people at potential volcanic risk than almost any other volcano on Earth. Mexico’s volcanic heritage includes some of the most scientifically significant eruptions of the 20th century: the birth of Parícutin from a cornfield in 1943 — one of only two volcanoes observed from their very inception — and the devastating 1982 eruption of [[volcano:chichon-el|El Chichón]] that killed over 2,000 people and injected a massive sulfur aerosol into the stratosphere. The country’s volcanoes are integral to Mexican culture, from the Aztec legend of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl to the snow-capped peaks visible from Mexico City that have inspired artists and mountaineers for centuries.

Mexico’s volcanism is driven primarily by the subduction of two oceanic plates beneath the North American Plate along the Middle America Trench, approximately 100–200 km off the Pacific coast. The Cocos Plate subducts beneath southern and central Mexico, while the smaller Rivera Plate dives beneath western Mexico near the state of Jalisco. These plates descend at varying angles — the Cocos Plate dips steeply in central Mexico but flattens dramatically beneath the Guerrero region — creating an irregular volcanic arc that does not follow the trench parallel as most subduction arcs do.

Instead, the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) runs obliquely east-west at approximately 15–20° to the Middle America Trench, a geometric anomaly that has been debated by geologists for decades and is attributed to the complex interaction between the subducting plates, the overriding continent, and possible mantle upwelling.

The TMVB extends roughly 1,000 km from Volcán de Colima near the Pacific coast in the west to Pico de Orizaba and the Tuxtla volcanic field on the Gulf of Mexico coast in the east. It sits on extremely thick continental crust (>25 km), and the resulting magmas are predominantly andesitic to dacitic — viscous, gas-rich compositions prone to explosive eruptions. The Michoacán-Guanajuato volcanic field alone contains over 1,400 monogenetic vents (cinder cones, maars, and small shields), one of the densest concentrations of volcanic vents on Earth.

A second, distinct volcanic province exists in Baja California and the offshore Revillagigedo Islands. Here, volcanism is related to the Gulf of California rift system and the East Pacific Rise, a divergent plate boundary. The rift volcanism in Baja produces smaller alkaline volcanic fields (Pinacate, Jaraguay, San Borja), while the offshore Isla Socorro and Isla San Benedicto (where [[volcano:barcena|Volcán Bárcena]] was born in 1952) reflect oceanic rift and hotspot processes.

The submarine Northern East Pacific Rise segments at 16°N and 17°N represent mid-ocean ridge volcanism within Mexican territorial waters. This tectonic diversity gives Mexico volcanoes ranging from explosive continental-arc stratovolcanoes to effusive oceanic shield volcanoes within a single country — a geological richness rivaled in the Americas only by [[country:ecuador|Ecuador]].

**Popocatépetl (5,393 m / 17,694 ft)**

[[volcano:popocatepetl|Popocatépetl]], whose Nahuatl name means “Smoking Mountain,” is Mexico’s most active and most dangerous volcano. Rising 70 km southeast of Mexico City, this glacier-clad [[special:types-of-volcanoes|stratovolcano]] contains a steep-walled 400 × 600 m summit crater. With 46 recorded eruptions including two VEI 5 events and ongoing activity since 1994, Popocatépetl places approximately 25 million people within its extended hazard zone — one of the highest volcanic risk exposures on Earth.

The current eruptive episode, which began in December 1994 after 67 years of dormancy, has included dome growth and destruction, Vulcanian explosions, tephra fall, and occasional lahars. Major explosive episodes in 2000, 2012, 2019, and 2023 generated ash plumes exceeding 10 km altitude and disrupted Mexico City’s international airport.

**Pico de Orizaba / Citlaltépetl (5,564 m / 18,255 ft)**

[[volcano:orizaba-pico-de|Pico de Orizaba]] is Mexico’s highest peak, the third-highest summit in North America (after Denali and Mount Logan), and North America’s highest volcano. This massive stratovolcano was constructed in three stages beginning in the mid-Pleistocene, with 27 recorded eruptions including a VEI 5 event around 6710 BCE. The most recent historical eruptions occurred in 1687 and 1846 (a minor event).

Although currently quiet with active fumaroles, a major eruption would threaten the densely populated Puebla-Veracruz corridor.

**Volcán de Colima (3,850 m / 12,631 ft)**

[[volcano:colima|Volcán de Colima]] (also known as Volcán de Fuego) is Mexico’s most historically active volcano, with 85 recorded eruptions — the highest count of any Mexican volcano — including five VEI 4 events. Part of the Colima volcanic complex that includes the older Nevado de Colima (4,320 m), Volcán de Colima occupies a 5-km-wide collapse scarp. Its eruptions include lava flows, dome growth, Vulcanian and Plinian explosions, pyroclastic flows, and lahars.

The 2015 eruption prompted evacuation of communities within 12 km, and the volcano last erupted in 2019.

**El Chichón (1,150 m / 3,773 ft)**

[[volcano:chichon-el|El Chichón]] was relatively unknown before its catastrophic March–April 1982 eruption (VEI 5), which killed over 2,000 people in the remote Chiapas highlands and injected the largest sulfur dioxide cloud into the stratosphere since Krakatau in 1883. The eruption destroyed the former summit dome and created a 1-km-wide, 300-m-deep crater now occupied by a hot acidic lake. With 13 recorded eruptions and four events of VEI 4 or greater, El Chichón is recognized as one of Mexico’s most dangerous volcanoes despite its small size and remote location.

**Michoacán-Guanajuato Volcanic Field / Parícutin (3,860 m / 12,664 ft highest point)**

The [[volcano:michoacan-guanajuato|Michoacán-Guanajuato volcanic field]] contains over 1,400 volcanic vents spread across 200 × 250 km of west-central Mexico — one of the densest concentrations of monogenetic volcanoes on Earth. Its most famous vent is Parícutin, which emerged from a farmer’s cornfield on February 20, 1943, and grew to 424 m over nine years of continuous eruption (1943–1952), eventually burying two villages including the town of San Juan Parangaricutiro. Parícutin is one of only two volcanoes in history observed from their very birth (the other being Surtsey in Iceland).

The earlier birth of Jorullo in 1759 (VEI 4) was similarly dramatic.

**Ceboruco (2,280 m / 7,480 ft)**

[[volcano:ceboruco|Ceboruco]] is the only historically active volcano in the northwestern sector of the TMVB. Its most significant eruption was a VEI 6 event around 930 CE that ejected the voluminous Jala Pumice and formed a 4-km-wide summit caldera — making it the largest known eruption in western Mexico during the Holocene. The most recent eruption in 1875 produced dacitic lava flows within the caldera.

**Nevado de Toluca / Xinantécatl (4,680 m / 15,354 ft)**

Nevado de Toluca, Mexico’s fourth-highest peak, rises above the Toluca basin 80 km west of Mexico City. Its 1.5-km-wide summit crater, open to the east and containing the picturesque Sun and Moon lakes separated by a dacitic lava dome, is one of Mexico’s most popular mountain destinations. Though its last eruption dates to approximately 1350 BCE, its proximity to Mexico City and history of major Plinian eruptions and debris avalanches make it a subject of ongoing hazard assessment.

**San Martín Tuxtla (1,650 m / 5,413 ft)**

[[volcano:san-martin|San Martín Tuxtla]] is a broad alkaline shield volcano rising above the Gulf of Mexico coast in Veracruz. Its 16 recorded eruptions include a VEI 4 event. The volcano is the centerpiece of the Tuxtla volcanic field, which contains over 250 pyroclastic cones and maars covered in dense tropical rainforest.

Its 1793 eruption (VEI 4) was the most significant Gulf-coast volcanic event in recent centuries.

**Socorro (1,050 m / 3,445 ft)**

[[volcano:socorro|Isla Socorro]], the largest of the Revillagigedo Islands 350 km south of Baja California, is the summit of a massive submarine basaltic shield volcano capped by a 4.5 × 3.8 km caldera. The island represents oceanic rift volcanism unrelated to the mainland TMVB. Socorro last erupted in 1993–1994 from submarine vents, and the island hosts a small Mexican Navy base.

Mexico’s volcanic eruption record spans over 8,000 years, with 240 documented eruptions across its 34 Holocene volcanoes. The most explosive known Holocene event was the VEI 6 eruption of Ceboruco around 930 CE, which produced the voluminous Jala Pumice deposits and formed a major caldera in western Mexico. Multiple VEI 5 eruptions are documented for El Chichón (1982, 1360, 780 CE, and ~2030 BCE), Popocatépetl (~200 BCE and ~3700 BCE), and Pico de Orizaba (~6710 BCE), establishing these volcanoes as capable of catastrophic explosive events.

The colonial period, beginning with Spanish conquest in the 1520s, provides over 500 years of written records. Popocatépetl erupted frequently in the 16th through 18th centuries, with major events in 1539, 1663, 1720, and 1802. Colima has been Mexico’s most persistently active historical volcano, with major VEI 4 eruptions in 1585, 1606, 1622, 1818, 1889, and 1913 — the latter being one of the largest Mexican eruptions of the 20th century, producing a 23-km-high Plinian column.

Two 20th-century eruptions hold particular scientific and historical significance. The birth of Parícutin on February 20, 1943, provided the first opportunity to study a cinder cone volcano from its very beginning, transforming volcanology. The eruption continued for nine years, burying two villages under lava and tephra.

Four decades later, the March 28–April 4, 1982, eruption of El Chichón in Chiapas killed over 2,000 people and injected approximately 7 million tonnes of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere — the largest stratospheric sulfur injection between the 1883 Krakatau and 1991 Pinatubo eruptions. The aerosol cloud depressed global temperatures by approximately 0.4°C.

The modern era has been dominated by Popocatépetl’s ongoing eruptive episode, which began in December 1994 and has included over three decades of intermittent dome growth, Vulcanian explosions, and tephra fall affecting Mexico City’s 21.8 million inhabitants. Colima erupted explosively in 2005 and 2015 (VEI 4), and El Chichón remains under surveillance. Mexico’s VEI distribution from the database shows 8 VEI 0, 28 VEI 1, 56 VEI 2, 45 VEI 3, 17 VEI 4, 7 VEI 5, and 1 VEI 6 event.

Mexico faces severe volcanic hazards compounded by extreme population exposure. Popocatépetl alone places an estimated 25 million people within its broader hazard zone — more than almost any volcano on Earth. The primary hazards include pyroclastic flows and surges, which can travel at hundreds of kilometers per hour and are the deadliest volcanic phenomenon; lahars, generated when volcanic material mixes with water from glacier melt, rainfall, or dam breach; tephra fall, which can collapse roofs, contaminate water supplies, disrupt aviation, and damage crops across hundreds of square kilometers; and volcanic gases, particularly sulfur dioxide, which can cause respiratory illness.

The 1982 El Chichón disaster demonstrated the consequences of inadequate monitoring — the volcano had no seismic instruments, and scientists were unable to issue effective warnings despite recognizing precursory activity. This disaster catalyzed the creation of the Centro Nacional de Prevención de Desastres ([[ext:https://www.gob.mx/cenapred|CENAPRED]]), which now coordinates Mexico’s volcanic monitoring and hazard mitigation. Popocatépetl is instrumented with a dense network of seismometers, tiltmeters, GPS stations, gas analyzers, and webcams.

A “traffic light” alert system (Semáforo de Alerta Volcánica) communicates hazard levels to the public, with Yellow Phase 2 or 3 typically maintained during elevated activity.

Lahars represent a critical threat at Popocatépetl, where summit glaciers have diminished but remain capable of generating floods, and at Pico de Orizaba, Colima, and other glaciated or rain-fed stratovolcanoes. The Mexican government maintains exclusion zones and evacuation plans, but the enormous population density in the TMVB corridor between Mexico City, Puebla, and Tlaxcala presents a logistical challenge of unprecedented scale for any major eruption.

Mexico’s 34 Holocene volcanoes are distributed across two principal volcanic provinces separated by over 1,000 km. The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) dominates the mainland, stretching approximately 1,000 km from Volcán de Colima near the Pacific coast in the west to the Tuxtla volcanic field on the Gulf of Mexico coast in the east. The TMVB runs roughly east-west at latitude 19°N, cutting obliquely across Mexico and containing the country’s highest and most dangerous volcanoes.

Within the TMVB, volcanoes cluster in several groups: the Colima complex in the west; the enormous Michoacán-Guanajuato monogenetic field in west-central Mexico; the central highland volcanoes including Nevado de Toluca, Chichinautzin, Popocatépetl, Iztaccíhuatl, and La Malinche; and the eastern chain from Cofre de Perote through Las Cumbres to Pico de Orizaba. El Chichón, in Chiapas, sits anomalously far south of the main TMVB axis.

The Baja California and offshore volcanic province includes the Pinacate volcanic field near the Arizona border, scattered volcanic fields along the Baja Peninsula (Jaraguay, San Borja, Comondú-La Purísima), and the oceanic volcanoes of the Revillagigedo Islands (Socorro, Bárcena). The submarine Northern East Pacific Rise segments represent the southernmost Mexican volcanic features. This geographic spread gives Mexico volcanic activity across nearly 20 degrees of latitude, from the Pinacate field at 31.8°N to the EPR segments near 16°N.

Volcanoes are deeply embedded in Mexican cultural identity, from pre-Columbian mythology to modern national symbolism. The Aztec legend of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl — the warrior and the sleeping princess — is one of Mexico’s foundational love stories, and the twin volcanoes visible from Mexico City feature in murals by Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. Pico de Orizaba appears on the coat of arms of the state of Veracruz.

The name “Mexico” itself may derive from the Nahuatl word “Metztli” (moon), with the Valley of Mexico shaped by the volcanic Chichinautzin field.

Volcanic soils across the TMVB are among the most agriculturally productive in Mexico, supporting major farming regions in Puebla, Tlaxcala, and Michoacán. Obsidian from volcanic deposits was the primary cutting material of Mesoamerican civilizations and a major trade commodity. Geothermal energy contributes to Mexico’s power grid, with the Cerro Prieto geothermal field in Baja California being one of the largest in the world.

Los Humeros caldera in Puebla hosts another significant geothermal development. Volcanic landscapes attract tourism, with Popocatépetl-Iztaccíhuatl National Park, the Nevado de Toluca crater lakes, the Pinacate Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO World Heritage Site), and the buried church at San Juan Parangaricutiro near Parícutin drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.

Mexico offers diverse volcano tourism, from high-altitude mountaineering to walking across still-warm lava fields. [[volcano:orizaba-pico-de|Pico de Orizaba]], Mexico’s highest peak, is a popular mountaineering objective, typically climbed from the Piedra Grande refuge at 4,260 m via the Jamapa Glacier route; the summit attempt requires crampons and ice axes and is best attempted November through March. Nevado de Toluca’s summit crater, containing the Sun and Moon lakes, is accessible by vehicle and a short hike — one of the easiest high-altitude volcanic experiences in the world. Iztaccíhuatl is also regularly climbed.

Popocatépetl is closed to climbing due to ongoing volcanic activity, but the Paso de Cortés pass between Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl offers dramatic views. The buried church of San Juan Parangaricutiro, protruding from the Parícutin lava field in Michoacán, is one of Mexico’s most evocative volcanic sites. The [[volcano:pinacate|Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve]] in Sonora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, offers guided tours of enormous maar craters and cinder cones in a stunning desert landscape.

In Chiapas, the crater lake at El Chichón can be visited with local guides. For volcano viewing, Mexico City itself offers sightlines to Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl on clear days — one of the few major world cities with active volcanoes on its skyline.