Based on analyses of satellite imagery, the Washington VAAC reported that on 29 January an ash plume from Colima drifted 55 km NE at an uncertain altitude. A thermal anomaly was also detected.

According to news articles, residents up to 20 km away reported a loud noise, shaking ground, and rattling windows at about 0400 on 29 January. Colima ejected incandescent material and an ash plume that rose 3 km. Ash fell in several communities.

Geological Summary. The Colima complex is the most prominent volcanic center of the western Mexican Volcanic Belt. It consists of two southward-younging volcanoes, Nevado de Colima (the high point of the complex) on the north and the historically active Volcán de Colima at the south. A group of late-Pleistocene cinder cones is located on the floor of the Colima graben west and east of the complex. Volcán de Colima (also known as Volcán Fuego) is a youthful stratovolcano constructed within a 5-km-wide scarp, breached to the south, that has been the source of large debris avalanches. Major slope failures have occurred repeatedly from both the Nevado and Colima cones, producing thick debris-avalanche deposits on three sides of the complex. Frequent recorded eruptions date back to the 16th century. Occasional major explosive eruptions have destroyed the summit (most recently in 1913) and left a deep, steep-sided crater that was slowly refilled and then overtopped by lava dome growth.

Sources: Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC), El Economista, El Occidental, La Prensa (Mexico)