Paricutín

Have you ever felt a little rumble under your feet? That’s how I began. I wasn’t always a tall, dark mountain. On February 20th, 1943, my life started as a tiny crack in a farmer's cornfield in a country called Mexico. Imagine the ground shaking and wiggling like a waking giant. A little puff of smoke, a deep grumbling sound from the earth, and then—whoosh. I pushed my way out and began to grow right before people’s eyes. I am Paricutín, the volcano that was born in a single day.

A kind farmer named Dionisio Pulido was the very first person to see me. He was in his field and was so surprised. He watched as I grew from a small bump in the ground into a big hill, and then a real mountain, all in my first day. By the end of my first week, I was as tall as a five-story building. I was a very noisy baby. I would roar loudly and send fiery, glowing rocks and gray ash high into the sky. The ash fell all around me like soft, gray snow, covering the trees, the houses, and the fields. My hot, slow-moving lava flowed like thick, gooey syrup across the land. It covered a whole village named Paricutín, and then another town called San Juan Parangaricutiro. I moved slowly, so all the people had plenty of time to pack their things and move to a safe place. They watched from far away as I changed their world forever. Scientists came from all over the world to watch me. For nine years, all the way until 1952, I put on one of the most exciting shows on Earth.

Now, my fiery show is over. I have been quiet for a very long time. I am a sleeping mountain. My slopes are covered in dark, hardened lava that looks like giant, crunchy black cookies that have cooled down. My noisy days are done, and I am a peaceful place. People from all over the world still come to visit me, but now they can hike all the way to my top and look inside my crater. The most amazing thing to see is the tall, stone church tower from the town of San Juan Parangaricutiro. It still reaches for the sky, right in the middle of my huge lava field. It is a beautiful reminder of the town that lies quietly beneath my feet. I show everyone how powerful and surprising our planet can be, and how nature is always creating new wonders for us to explore.