Parícutin

Filmed during the AMNH Parícutin Expeditions, 1943 and 1944. An active volcano, in the state of Michoacan, Mexico, was filmed at night and during the day with long-shots and close-ups, recording lava flowing down the mountain, incandescent bombs of hot rock shooting up from the crater, fumaroles (gas vents) and smoke, explosions, vapor clouds, molten rock, and tons of ash being blown skyward and over the surrounding villages, burying buildings. The Tarasco people, of the nearby towns of Juan de Parangaricutiro and Urupan del Progreso, are seen farming in ash-covered fields and removing ash from the roofs of their homes and businesses; there are some buildings that have been completely buried by the ash. The AMNH sent two expeditions to Paricutin, one in 1943, another in 1944. The second expedition was sponsored by Otto O. Fisher, and included Audrey Fisher, George Clyde Fisher (retired Director of the AMNH-Hayden Planetarium), Te Ata (Clyde Fisher's wife), F. Hugh Deffendall (their pilot), T. A. D. Nichols of the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, and William Frederick Foshag. Frederick H. Pough, of the AMNH Department of Geology and Mineralogy, is seen using a pyrometer to take the temperature of the cone of the volcano through crevices.