In 1943, scientists were stunned to be able to witness the birth of a brand new volcano in Mexico, arising out of nowhere in the middle of a field.
A very strange thing happened in Paricutin, Mexico on February 20th, 1943.
For one particular farmer, this day would surely live in infamy. For geologists around the world, however, this was a day of wonderful opportunity to learn more about the world itself.
This was the day when, with no real warning, the farmer in Paricutin suddenly found himself with a highly explosive cinder cone volcano suddenly sprouting up in his corn field.
Escape!
Fortunately he and everyone else who was near the sudden flurries of lava and ash which began spreading out quickly (known to volcanologists as a pyroclastic flow), scorching vast areas of land with its lava and hot ash had a decent amount of time to escape the impending danger.
In a remarkable display of human ability to react, not a single person was killed by the initial onset of the volcano itself. The only fatalities reported during the initial eruption and lava flow (which in the end covered as much as ten square miles) were actually those of people being struck by volcanic lightening (a phenomenon which is still, for the most part, not adequately explained, though scientists are working on it).
Volcanic Growth
Now, the pyroclastic (that is, violent) portion of the eruption of the Paricutin volcano continued nearly unabated for almost a year, during which time the lava and ash continued to compact onto itself, growing into a hill with a height of nearly 1,100 feet.
Lesser versions of the eruption continued on for still another eight years after this, during which time the frequency and intensity slowly dwindled, the height of the volcano growing another 290 feet, then finally dying out altogether.
The Paricutin volcano is classified as a monogenetic volcano, which means that it will never erupt again (mono being the Greek root for “one”).
It is officially a dead volcano, though it certainly lived quite a life, destroying two entire villages (Paricutin, after which it was named, and San Juan), and giving scientists their first and only chance to witness first hand in an eight year period the birth, life, and death of an entire volcano.
Overshadowed
This would have been much bigger news when it first occurred, the world was a little distracted at the time by a little thing going on in Europe and Asia known as World War II, followed by another little thing in Korea a few years later. It just wasn't the right time to be focusing too much on strange little Mexican volcanoes, except for geologists themselves.
The incident at Paricutin is, fortunately, rare enough that the average human being (even those living in the Pacific Ocean’s “ring of fire” need not be too worried about a spontaneously growing up in the field next door. At the same time, however, the possibility apparently cannot be ruled out entirely.
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