In 1982, the El Chichón volcano erupted in Chiapas, Mexico, killing 2,000 people. During one week (28 March–4 April 1982), three powerful explosive eruptions (VEI 5) of El Chichón Volcano caused the worst volcanic disaster in Mexico's recorded history. Pyroclastic flows and surges obliterated nine villages, killing about 2,000 people, and ashfalls downwind posed socio–economic hardships for many thousands of inhabitants of the States of Chiapas and Tabasco. The Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption in 2011 was judged – by some – to be of intensity 5 was really just a VEI 4. The 2012 Mt. El Chichón volcano has produced at least 12 major volcanic eruptions during the past 8000 years. -1982 eruption killed 2000 people-small but powerful-erupted constantly from March 28 to April 4 1982 -it is the most southern and eastern volcano in Mexico-1982 eruption also affected the Earth's climate for a couple years-almost 220,000 years old. No previous eruptions of El Chichón are known in historic time. It spewed vast quantities of sulphur dioxide and other particulates into the atmosphere. The volcano displays a recurrence interval of 300 years on average, with a range from a minimum of 100 yr to a maximum of 600 yr. It spewed vast quantities of sulphur dioxide and other particulates into the atmosphere. Before the 1982 eruption, the volcano was heavily forested, with a shallow crater, 1,900 X 900 m, elongate NNW-SSE. The eruption in 1350 was a major event, a VEI 5 eruption that produced about 2.3 cubic kilometers of tephra -- and was one of a string of at least 11 VEI 4-5 eruptions from the El Chichón complex over the past 10,000 years. The AD 540 eruption would have been much bigger, the Utrecht researcher said. El Chichon was the first major eruption to have its atmospheric effects studied in detailed by modern instruments. Destruction was the greatest within 10 km (6 mi) of the volcano, where more than 2,000 people were killed and 20,000 people left homeless. Etna eruption was rated a 3+. El Chichón is a lava dome complex that was heavily forested before the eruption, but the landscape was wiped out for about 5 miles (8 kilometers) around by … El Chichón's most recent eruption began on March 28, 1982 and devastated an area of about 10 km around the volcano and covered southeastern Mexico with ash fall . Although the volume of the eruption was small (< 1 cubic km of alkalic trachyandesite tephra, similar in volume to Mount St. Helens), El Chichon was also notable because it released an unusually large volume of aerosols (7 Mt of SO2 compared to 1.0 for Mount St. Helens). Volcanic Eruption, El Chichon´ Alan Robock Volume 1, The Earth system: physical and chemical dimensions of global environmental change, pp 736–736 Edited by Dr Michael C MacCracken and Dr John S Perry in Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change El Chichon last let go in spectacular style in 1982, destroying local communities and killing 2,000 people. 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