Mexico has over 3,000 monogenetic volcanoes that could erupt: expert

There are more than 3,000 monogenetic volcanoes in Mexico that could experience a major eruption, a researcher said on Tuesday.

The subduction of the North American plate by the Rivera and Cocos plates generates seismic and volcanic activity in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, where the monogenetic volcanoes predominate, said Marie Noelle Guilbaud, professor of the Geophysics Institute at Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM).

Monogenetic volcanoes are generally small and erupt only once. In Mexico, the longest eruption by one such volcano, the Paricutin, in central Michoacan state, lasted nine years from 1943-1952.

"If just one becomes active, it would be dangerous for Mexico City and Cuernavaca (in central Morelos state), just as Xitle (the Ajusco Volcano) was for the ancient inhabitants of the Anahuac Valley," Guilbaud said.

The scholar said Mexico has two potentially dangerous monogenetic volcanic fields -- the Michoacan-Guanajuato and the Sierra Chichinautzin.

The Michoacan-Guanajuato volcanic field covers an area of 50,000 square km, and the massive Chichinautzin volcanic field covers a 90-km long east-west trending area south of central Mexico City.

Researchers say they believe such volcanoes can have powerful eruptions that may not send volcanic rocks and ash high into the sky or cause climate changes, but their abundant lava flows would affect the surrounding communities.

"Xitle had such an eruption before," said Guilbaud. "If it happens again, the incandescent material spewed out would not cause deaths, since communities would be evacuated on time, but it would bury whatever it found in its path," she added. Endi