Authorities appealed for calm in communities surrounding the Popo-catepetl volcano and banned aircraft from flying near the ash-spewing crater Tuesday.
Mountain communities around the 17,991-foot peak continue on "yellow alert," which they have been under almost continuously since the volcano began rumbling and forced some evacuations in December 1994.The Communications and Transport Secretariat issued an advisory forbidding aircraft from flying within a 10-mile radius of the crater, the Televisa television network reported.
The ban is due to concerns that the abrasive volcanic ash, such as the plumes that rose from the peak over the weekend, could be sucked into jet engines and clog turbines.
Ashes shot high into the atmosphere Sunday night and were carried by winds as far as the Gulf of Mexico, 140 miles east of the volcano. That was the first time ash had fallen that far away since the volcano entered a new period of activity this year.
Authorities said Monday there was no cause for alarm, and some experts believe the ash explosion may have actually cleared clogged ducts in the volcano's interior, easing the pressure.
Civil defense officials in the central Mexican state of Puebla, the most likely to be affected in the event of an eruption, reported no damage from the huge ash shower.
Helicopter TV footage showed the snow-capped volcano wreathed in a yellowish haze Monday. But smog obscured Mexico City's view of Popocatepetl, 45 miles southeast of the capital's downtown.