"In 1993, after almost 70 years of calm, Popocatépetl began to stir, emitting gases, shaking the earth, and reaffirming its Aztec name, 'smoking mountain.' At Christmastime in 1994 small explosions in the crater prompted a chaotic temporary evacuation of 25,000 people from the most vulnerable villages. Since then El Popo, as Mexicans affectionately call the mountain, has intermittently thrown clouds of ash thousands of feet into the air and incandescent rocks onto the steep upper slopes of its bare cone."
—Photographed on assignment for, but not published in, "Popocatépetl: Mexico's Smoking Mountain," January 1999, National Geographic magazine
Get a year of outstanding photos like this—order National Geographic magazine and get a free gift.
