Local cornfield farmer Dionisio Pulido was working hard in his field on February 20th, 1943 when he felt the ground shake and heard a rumbling sound. He then watched as the ground began to swell upward, forming a fissure that later developed into a small crater. The volcano had appeared out of nowhere, and yet it continued to grow. By the end of the week it was about 125 meters high.
This volcano came to be known as Paricutin Volcano, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Found in Michoacán, Mexico, it is considered the youngest and most recent volcano in the Western Hemisphere. It is a cinder cone volcano, which means that the volcano grows through ejecting lava which lands at the base of the volcano and continues to build up.
The volcano was most active in its first year, growing to most of its final 424 meter height. With each following year, the volcano became less active, until it became dormant in 1952. By this time, Paricutin had done lots of damage by depositing 233 square kilometers of volcanic stone, ash, and lava, and killing almost all of the surrounding vegetation. It also buried two towns and affected three others. Many people in the area were forced to move to new locations.
However, not everything the volcano did was bad. The eruption of Paricutin allowed scientists to study the birth, life, and death of a volcano, something they had never been able to do before.
The volcano is now currently considered to be extinct, which means that it is dormant and unlikely to erupt again. It has become a popular tourist attraction. People can climb the volcano and visit the lava-covered ruins of buildings.
Despite the volcano being extinct, Paricutin is still hot, and rainwater that falls onto it can cause steam to be emitted. The ground around Paricutin is also very unstable, and a series of earthquakes have occurred in the area since it's eruption.