Mexico: Popocatepetl volcano spews ash to produce stunning display

Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano erupted over several days, belching ash over Mexico City's blue sky, authorities reported. The constant exhalation of ash from the volcano, nicknamed Don Goyo, began shortly before 4pm on 6 October and lasted for several hours.

At 12.25pm on 7 October, a spectacular column of ash belched from the volcano, located 50 miles south-east of the capital. National Civil Protection Coordinator Luis Felipe Puente said in his Twitter account, ash and smoke rose 2,500m above the crater of the volcano and blew to the northeast.

Mexico's National Center for Disaster Prevention said in a news release the activity consisted of an almost continuous sequence of small explosions accompanied by tremors, which produced the spitting of fine ash and incandescent fragments rising up to 300m from the crater by the north-eastern flank.

Popocatepetl has spewed smoke and ash sporadically over the past few years. Mexico contains more than 3,000 volcanoes but only 14 are considered active.