Parícutin: The Volcano That Was Born in a Farmer's Cornfield, Mexico

On the afternoon of February 20, 1943, a Purépecha farmer named Dionisio Pulido was preparing his cornfield near the village of Parícutin, in the highlands of Michoacán, Mexico. His wife Paula was with him. Then the ground in front of them began to swell and crack. A fissure opened. Steam, sparks and hot ash began spurting out of the earth. Pulido tried to cover the openings, then realized there was nothing he could do, and ran. He had just witnessed the birth of a volcano. It grew with astonishing speed. By the end of the first day, the cone was about 50 meters (160 feet) tall. Within a week it stood 100 to 150 meters high. Glowing bombs of molten rock burst into the night sky, and lava began pouring across the surrounding farmland. Most of the volcano's growth came in its first year. The lava kept coming. The village of Parícutin, which gave the volcano its name, was buried. So was the larger town of San Juan Parangaricutiro. By 1944, nearly all that remained visible of San Juan was its church, its towers rising out of a field of black rock. Three people were killed, two towns were completely evacuated and buried, and three others were heavily damaged. Hundreds of people had to relocate permanently, and new towns were built to take them in. Before leaving, Pulido reportedly put up a sign in what was left of his field: "This volcano is owned and operated by Dionisio Pulido." For scientists, Parícutin was a once-in-history opportunity. For the first time, modern science could watch a volcano of this type from its first moment to its last. Over nine years, geologists mapped it, sketched it, sampled it and photographed it. The eruption finally ended in 1952, leaving a cinder cone 424 meters (1,391 feet) above the cornfield where it began, and damaging more than 233 square kilometers (90 square miles) of land. Parícutin is now quiet, though the region around it is still volcanically active. In 1997, CNN named it one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Today the most famous sight is the church of San Juan Parangaricutiro: its bell tower and facade rising from the hardened lava, and inside, an altar where people still leave candles and flowers. A cornfield became a mountain in a matter of years, and a farmer who went out to plant his crops found himself standing at the birth of a volcano.