POPOCATÉPETL VOLCANO, Mexico (AP) — In the predawn darkness, a team of scientists climbs the slope of Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano, one of the world’s most active and whose eruption could affect millions of people. Its mission: figure out what is happening under the crater.For five years, the group from Mexico’s National Autonomous University has climbed the volcano with kilos of equipment, risked data loss due to bad weather or a volcanic explosion and used artificial intelligence to analyze the seismic data. Now, the team has created the first three-dimensional image of the 17,883-foot (5,452-meter) volcano’s interior, which tells them where the magma accumulates and will help them better understand its activity, and, eventually, help authorities better react to eruptions.Marco Calò, professor in the UNAM’s Geophysics Institute’s vulcanology department and the project leader, invited The Associated Press to accompany the team on its most recent expedition, the last before its research on the volcano will be published.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMovement undergroundInside an active volcano, everything is moving: the rocks, magma, gas and aquifers. It all generates seismic signals.Most of the world’s volcanoes that pose a risk to humans already have detailed maps of their interiors, but not Popocatépetl, despite the fact that some 25 million people live within a 62-mile (100 kilometers) radius and houses, schools, hospitals and five airports could be affected by an eruption.Other scientists took some early images 15 years ago, but they showed contradictory results and did not have sufficient resolution to see “how the volcanic edifice was being built,” and above all, where the magma gathered, Calò said.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHis team increased the number of seismographs from the 12 provided by Mexico’s National Disaster Prevention Center to 22 to cover the entire perimeter of the volcano. Even though just three can alert to an emergency, many more are needed to understand what is behind those emergencies.The devices measure vibrations in the ground 100 times per second and generate data that Karina Bernal, 33, a doctoral student and researcher on the project, processed by using artificial intelligence to adapt algorithms developed for other volcanoes.“I taught the machine about the different types of tremors there are in El Popo” and with that they were able to catalog the different kinds of seismic signals, she said.Little by little the scientists began to infer what kinds of material were wh …
