El Chichón: When a Dormant Volcano Came Back to Life
The greatest volcanic disaster in modern Mexican history
5 min readAug 3, 2020
In 1980 and 1981, deep tremors started shaking the earth in southwest Mexico. They were weak at first but gradually grew stronger. People started to worry. By February 1982, the villagers in Francisco León, north Chiapas, were also sensing an odd smell in the air — they would…