This could destroy Mexico City in the future.
UNAM scientists foresee the birth of a new volcano south of Mexico City
The Chichinautzin mountain, which guards the southern limits of Mexico City, is a mountain range considered an active volcanic field, made up of more than 300 monogenetic volcanoes, such as the Xitle volcano, which was born almost 2,000 years ago, a period of time that has given UNAM researchers the certainty that a
new volcano is about to be born in this region. When, how and where, are still great unknowns that they are trying to decipher.
Unlike large volcanoes such as Popocatepetl, where the location of its crater is known, in the case of monogenetic volcanoes it is not known, so the site of the next eruption cannot be predicted. So since 2008, Dr. Hugo Delgado Granados, researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the UNAM, together with his colleague Roberto Villalpando of the UAM Azcapotzalco, published the Method for forecasting the location of a new volcano south of Mexico City, which is done by monitoring diffuse carbon dioxide emissions in the ground.
"Monogenetic volcanic fields are areas where a magmatic event takes place through the ascent of magma, but instead of leaving through the same crater, through the same volcano, in each event there is the creation of a new volcano," said Hugo Delgado in an interview with MILENIO.
In a more recent study, published in 2019, volcanologist Martín del Pozzo and her colleague Amiel Nieto-Torres, argue that an eruption in the Chichinautzin Monogenetic Field poses a major volcanic hazard to Mexico City, home to more than 20 million people.
The Chichinautzin volcanic field covers the municipalities of Tlalpan, Xochimilco and Milpa Alta, due to the fact that it is uncertain when, how and where it will be born, the signals it may emit are being monitored for possible formation.
El estudio Evaluación de la amenaza espacio-temporal de un campo volcánico monogenético, cerca de la Ciudad de México, destaca que los flujos de lava del volcán
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