Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Parícutin (Volcano Week 3)

Posted by Alex Turnbull, Friday, 17th October 2008

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Parícutin is a very young cinder cone volcano in Mexico, and like most cinder cones it will never erupt again - but the story of its creation is a truly fascinating one.

On February 20, 1943, a local farmer by the name of Dionisio Pulido witnessed a fissure appearing in his cornfield, which immediately began to spew forth ash and stones. Astonishingly within just one year the fissure had grown into a 336 m tall volcano!

Over the course of the next 8 years the volcano grew to a final height of 424 m and simultaneously buried 25 km² of the surrounding land, including two entire villages! The top of a nearby church is still visible above the long solidified magma.

(Wikipedia, ground-level pic)

Thanks to Maite Elguero.

One Response to 'Parícutin (Volcano Week 3)'

  1. 1. john says:

    Wow, a volcano just popped up in his corn field out of nowhere. That must have been a bad day. Having to explain to the neighbors why he suddenly had a volcano growing in his field probably wasn’t easy either.

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