From the Instituto de Geofisica at UNAM:

Popocatepetl Volcano news: 

Latest developments:

A colloquium on research at Popo organized by the Geophysics Institute is
currently taking place (January 12-13). These are some of the results
presented:

Ash recovered does not show juvenile material. Seismic activity has decreased
to its lowest levels in the past 6 months.  Tremor activity has also decreased.
No major deformation has been detected at the volcanic edifice. Ash-gas
continues being expelled in a horizontal direction indicating no convective
energy.

An ash-gas eruptive event started on December 21th, 1994. Ash was carried by
winds as far as the City of Puebla, about 40 km E from the volcanic edifice. On
december 24th, approximately 8,200 tons of ash had fallen down on the Valley of
Puebla, according to the State System of Civil Protection. 33,000 inhabitants
of the Valley were evacuated, altough most have returned to their homes by now.
Currently, ten stations remain in operation around the volcanic edifice, for
seismic monitoring purposes, in a cooperative effort by the Geophysics and
Engineering Institutes of UNAM and the CENAPRED (National Center for Disaster
Prevention). The USGS also provided two tilt-meter stations which were
installed at two of the sites around the summit. Gas, deformation and
spring-water monitoring is also being carried out. A previous eruptive event of
Popo took place in 1921, similar to the current ash-gas eruption. About 17
events of similar characteristics have taken place in the last 500 years. There
are written accounts of an event of larger proportions which took place in
1540. Popocatepetl (smoking mountain in nahuatl) volcano is located about 60 km
SE of Mexico City.

For additional information contact Carlos Valdes
(carlosv@ollin.igeofcu.unam.mx).