Analysis of the eruptive history of the Volcán de Colima, México (1560 1980)

Abstract

"A catalogue of the eruptive history of Volcán de Colima, Mexico, (based on published papers and reports) for the period 1560 - 1980 is presented in this paper. This volcano is at the present time the most active in the country. The recorded data show that the dominant activity is of the explosive type with at least 29 eruptions of this kind in the last 420 years. An analysis of the data shows 57 repose periods in this lapse the application of the statistical models of Wickman (1966) and Thorlaksson (1967) allows the computation of the eruption rate Ø (t), the distribution function for the length of repose periods F(t) and the probability density function for the same variable f(t). These functions yield maximum probability for the occurrence of eruption at repose periods shorter than 18 years.