Overall Green Volcanic eruption for Popocatepetl
in Mexico

Event summary

GREEN alert: The Popocatepetl Volcanic eruption may have a low humanitarian impact, based on the magnitude of the eruption, the exposed population and its coping capacity..

GDACS ID VO 1000087
Name: Popocatepetl (341090)
Lat/Lon: 19.02 , -98.62
Event Date: 28 Feb 2024 UTC
Exposed Population 30km: About 720000 people within 30km
Exposed Population 100km: About 26800000 people within 100km
Max Volc. Explosivity Index VEI: 5
Population Exposure Index PEI: 5
Inserted at: 28 Feb 2024 06:23 UTC

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
Mexico - Volcanic eruption (ECHO 28 Feb 2024)Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:30

  • Popocatépetl volcano, located in the States of Puebla, Morelos, and Mexico, central Mexico erupted on 27 February and the ash plume reached up to 2,000 m above the crater. 
  • According to Mexico's National Center for Prevention of Disasters (CENAPRED), a tiny ash fall has been reported across several Municipalities in the States of Morelos, Tlaxcala, Mexico City, and Mexico. In addition, media report the cancellation of more than 20 domestic and international flights.
  • The authorities raised the alert level to phase 2, and recommended to respect the exclusion radius of 12 km around the crater, being within this area is not safe.
Detailed event map. European Union, 2026. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

The Smithsonian/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report provides information about global volcanism on a weekly basis. Latest Popocatepetl report has been published on 17 Jan 2024 10:08.
CENAPRED reported that eruptive activity continued at Popocat?petl during 9-16 January. Long-period events totaling 6-64 per day were accompanied by steam-and-gas plumes that occasionally contained minor amounts of ash. The plumes mainly drifted ENE and NE. The seismic network recorded 14.5-23 daily hours of tremor, including both low- and high-frequency events. Minor amounts of ash fell in Nealtican (21 km E) during 11-12 January. Ashfall was also reported in Nativitas (40 km NE), Tetlatlahuaca (42 km NE), Zacatelco (45 km NE), Xicohtinco (45 km NE), Ayometla (46 km ENE), Papalotla (62 km NNW), Tenancingo, San Pablo del Monte (49 km E), Mazatecochco (50 km ENE), Tlaxcala (50 km NW), and Tepeyanco (47 km NW) in the state of Tlaxcala on 15 January and in Nealtican, Juan C. Bonilla (32 km ENE), and Tlaltenango in the state of Puebla on 16 January. The Alert Level remained at Yellow, Phase Two (the middle level on a three-color scale) and the public was warned to stay 12 km away from the crater. Source: Centro Nacional de Prevencion de Desastres (CENAPRED)
See the detail here

Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (31), INGV (2), DesInventar (1), WMO (1), INFORM (2), (1), JSR (1),