The "Doomsday Volcano" woke up after 40 years of silence: what really scares scientists and what doesn't

In Mexico, the name of the volcano that once wiped entire villages off the map in a matter of days and significantly affected the planet's climate has been recalled. After four decades of silence, El Chichon is showing alarming signs of awakening - a change in the color of the crater lake, abnormal heat, toxic gases - and scientists are switching monitoring to "red alert" mode, while at the same time reassuring: this is not yet a scenario for a new catastrophic eruption^{1 2 4} .

Researchers have detected rising temperatures, bubbling gases and unusual sulfur formations inside the Mexican volcano El Chichon, also known as Chichonal.

Which "Doomsday Volcano" Has Awakened and Why Now

This is the El Chichón volcano in southern Mexico, in the state of Chiapas, which last erupted in March–April 1982, claiming at least 2000 lives and becoming one of the most tragic natural disasters in the country's history.^{1 2} It was then that the volcano gained a reputation as a "killer": powerful pyroclastic flows destroyed surrounding villages, buried coffee plantations and infrastructure under ash, and the ash cloud that rose into the stratosphere caused a slight global cooling over the following years.^{1 2 9} After that event, tourist access to the crater area was restricted, and El Chichón itself became a testing ground for studying how "sleeping giants" behave decades after a major eruption.^{1 4} .

Now, after more than 40 years of relative quiet, the volcano has once again attracted attention. A team from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) conducted an extended monitoring program in 2025 – from June to December – and recorded a number of anomalies in the crater.^{1 4} . This data formed the basis of materials by Green Matters and a number of mass media, including British tabloids, which launched a viral headline about the “doom volcano” - the “doomsday volcano” that “wakes up after 40 years of silence”^{1 2 6} .

What exactly is happening inside the crater: heat, chemistry and "sulfur balls"

The first noticeable sign of El Chichón's resuscitation was the change in color of the crater lake. It is usually a bright green hue due to specific algae, but recently the water has become grayish, indicating an increased content of sulfates and silica.^{1 2} Thermal measurements taken at and around the lake bottom recorded temperatures well above the background values ​​that volcanologists who have been observing the crater for years are accustomed to.^{1 2} For El Chichón, known for its combination of magmatic and hydrothermal activity, such a change is a clear indicator that “something” within the system has changed.

Another alarming sign is the appearance of hollow sulfur spheres inside the crater. Researchers from UNAM describe them as formations that arise in pools of liquid sulfur under the influence of gas bubbles rising from the depths.^{1 2} Gas samples confirmed high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), which pose a direct threat to all life in the lowlands around the volcano, as these gases can accumulate in the depressions and cause suffocation in animals and people¹ For a region where people and livestock live quite close to the danger zone, this is not a theoretical, but a very concrete threat.

Does this mean an imminent catastrophe: the position of volcanologists

Despite the dramatic headlines about the “doomsday volcano,” leading Mexican volcanologists are currently urging cautious calm. Dr. Patricia Jácome Paz of UNAM explained that the activity recorded is most likely hydrothermal in nature: superheated groundwater interacting with hot rocks, creating a “boiling kettle” effect, but with no obvious signs of magma actively moving upward.^{1 2 4} A key reassuring factor is the absence of seismic signals that usually accompany magma ascent, and surface deformations that would indicate pressure from below.^{1 4} .

Articles about current activity explicitly emphasize that seismic data do not indicate the movement of magma under the volcano, and therefore there are no signs of an imminent major eruption similar to the events of 1982.^{1 2} At the same time, scientists remind that even hydrothermal processes can produce dangerous steam explosions, local gas emissions and other phenomena that can harm people who find themselves too close to the crater.^{1 4} Therefore, the current “red alert level” is more of a signal for increased monitoring and access restrictions than for the immediate evacuation of large areas.

Why El Chichón is called a potential "civilization-scale volcano"

Some media outlets, including the British Mirror, describe El Chichón as one of the few volcanoes whose potential eruption could have consequences not only for a particular region, but also for the global climate.^{2 9} The reason lies in its history: the 1982 eruption spewed huge volumes of ash and aerosols into the atmosphere, leading to a noticeable, albeit relatively small, drop in average global temperatures for several years, similar to the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.² This is not the “end of civilization,” but against the backdrop of climate change, the already fragile balance of the system could receive another blow in the form of unusual weather anomalies.

The eruption of El Chichion also showed how vulnerable the local economy is to such events. The 1982 pyroclastic flows swept away coffee plantations, farms and infrastructure, turning much of the region into a disaster zone with long-term economic and social consequences.^{1 2 9} Today, as the world actively considers climate and geopolitical risks, El Chichón returns to analytical reports as an example of how even an “average” volcano can have a disproportionately large effect if it strikes at the right moment and at a vulnerable point in the global system.

How the "Doomsday Volcano" is being monitored now: drones, satellites and ground sensors

The current monitoring regime for El Chichion is a combination of classic field measurements and high-tech instruments. UNAM teams and partners use drones to photograph the crater and measure surface temperatures, satellite data to track thermal anomalies and ground deformations, and a network of sensitive sensors to capture even the smallest shifts in seismic activity.^{1 4 5} The composition of gases, the temperature of the water in the lake and in underground springs are monitored separately - these parameters often change even before the "shaking" begins.^{1 4} .

Scientists emphasize that even decades of silence do not mean that a volcano is “dead” — it is rather a pause in the long history of magma movement, hydrothermal processes, and chemical evolution of the system.^{1 4 5} . El Chichón has become a case study of how to deal with “awakened giants”: not to panic at every new gas bubble, but also not to write off anomalies as “normal activity.” Early diagnosis of changes in chemistry and temperature gives a chance to prepare for a possible transition to a more active phase if seismic signals of magma movement suddenly appear.

Lessons for the world: why the story of El Chichion is important to distant Ukraine

For a Ukrainian reader, the news about a Mexican volcano may seem distant and “exotic,” but there are several important lessons here. First, it is about how science works with low-probability but high-risk events: both in the topic of volcanoes and in the topic of wars or man-made disasters, monitoring, transparent communication, and preparedness for the worst-case scenarios in the absence of panic are key.^{1 4 5} Second, the story of El Chichion reminds us that local impacts on infrastructure and agriculture can have a “long tail” of consequences, and recovery requires not only money but also planning for decades.

Finally, amid global discussions about climate and security, stories about “doomsday volcanoes” are often used as media “horror stories” — but behind them is real scientific data that should be separated from clickable headlines.^{2 9} . El Chichon today is not "it will explode tomorrow and destroy civilization," but a signal that the world system is becoming increasingly complex and interconnected. And that we, regardless of latitude and longitude, will have to learn to live in a reality where, alongside wars and energy crises, forces of a completely different scale sleep for a long time and periodically awaken.

Sources

1. RBC-Ukraine (English): "Mysterious volcano awakened after 40 years of dormancy: Scientists declare red alert" – a review of UNAM data on anomalies in the El Chichion crater and volcanologists' assessments.
2. Daily Express: "'Doom Volcano' stirs after decades of silence leaving scientists terrified" – a popular article about rising temperatures, gases and sulfur spheres in the crater.
3. ABDPost / Internewscast: brief news about the volcano's "awakening" after 40 years and increased monitoring.
4. Green Matters (cited in RBC-Ukraine and Mirror): a detailed description of UNAM's observations of changes in the lake, gas emissions, and thermal anomalies.
5. VolcanoDiscovery: a selection of news about volcanic activity, including materials about El Chichón as an example of an "awakened" volcano.
6. MailOnline / NewsNow aggregators: a selection of materials about the "doom volcano" and links to primary sources about monitoring.
7. USGS Volcano Updates: general context on how updates and alert levels for volcanoes are structured (for comparison with UNAM approaches).
8. Mirror: "Scientists on red alert as 'civilisation-ending' volcano begins to wake" – an article about the global risks from major eruptions, which mentions El Chichón as an example.
9. NOVA PBS “Doomsday Volcanoes”: A popular science context about volcanoes with potentially global consequences from eruptions.