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That is the look on your face after glancing out the window and seeing your cornfield erupting.

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https://youtu.be/NCYFlutw1Ko&rel=0

This 2023 video by Mexico’s National Autonomous University is in Spanish, but it has lots of good footage of the eruption and a size comparison as the cone grew.

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That’s Parícutin, in the amazing Michoacán-Guanajuato volcanic field.

It’s monogenetic, meaning that Parícutin is unlikely to ever erupt again.

As Oregon State’s Volcano World notes, “A monogenetic field is kind of like taking a single volcano and spreading all its separate eruptions over a large area.”

They use Parícutin as an example in this animated TED talk on why volcanoes erupt:

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https://youtu.be/LQwZwKS9RPs&rel=0

1942 — 1943, per all sources, including this one, but the rest of this jives with what I have read.

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They mention water entering the mantle in a subduction zone, and you might be wondering where this zone is, inland in central Mexico.

It’s down there — just a little weird (jargon alert).

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Most of us, of course, aren’t thinking “Why?” when a volcano goes off nearby.

If we’re thinking at all — and we definitely should be thinking! — it’s the “what” of it that we’re focused on:

• Ash.
  

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  https://youtu.be/ngPX6-jbHn4&rel=0

  GVP pages on Soufrière Hills, in Montserrat, and Tungurahua, in Ecuador.

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• Gases.
  

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  https://youtu.be/1mUVC6vMLUw&rel=0

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• Lava.
  

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  https://youtu.be/_N6lJN8gu7M&rel=0

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• Lahar.
  

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  https://youtu.be/ASu2yW9mb64&rel=0

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• Fiery death clouds.
  

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  https://youtu.be/V-f7JxMfS9Y&rel=0

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Some lagniappe:

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https://youtu.be/_uEfmQt34Nc&rel=0

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Featured image: Dionisio Pulido, the cornfield’s owner. (Image: San Diego History Center.)

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