BACKYARD VOLCANO
“The ground is hot—almost hot enough to burn my feet! It’s been
getting hotter every day.”
That’s what a farmer named Dionisio Pulido thought as he plowed his
cornfield near Paricutin, Mexico.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake and crack, and a big puff of smoke
and steam roared out of a hole in the ground.
Dionisio ran to the village and warned the people that there was a
monster in his cornfield. It wasn’t a monster, of course. It was a
volcano being born.
It shot ashes and steam and melted rock out of the ground until all of
Dionisio’s farm was buried.
It grew through the spring and summer until it became higher than the
highest building in the world.
It forced people who lived in the village of Paricutin to run away so
they wouldn’t be buried under it. It grew until it buried another town,
too. During the day, the sky was black with falling ashes. And at night,
the sky was red with sparks and glowed with melted rock.
The volcano kept growing year after year until it became a mountain.
Then, it stopped growing.
Today, Paricutin volcano is quiet. In just ten years, it grew big enough
to be counted by some people as one of the seven natural wonders of the
world.
Lava from Paricutin almost buried this church tower in a nearby
village.
