The Paricutin volcano erupted from 1943 to 1952 with several eruptive phases. In early 1943, residents near Paricutin, Mexico, about 200 miles west of Mexico City, experienced hundreds of earthquakes.

On February 20, 1943, the farmer Dionisio Pulido observed the birth of a volcano. For weeks the ground near the village of Uruapan, about 200 miles west of Mexico City, had been trembling and deep ...