Author(s)

M. Teutli León, A. A. Sánchez Hernández

Abstract

Atlimeyaya, Puebla is located inside area 1 of the CENAPRED (Prevention Disasters National Center) risk map, which centers on the Popocatepetl volcano. The location of Atlimeyaya shows that it is subjected to significant amounts of ash fall, which strongly impacts all surface water bodies. In this study 9 sites were chosen, which were sampled 5 times during 2014. Collected water samples were analysed for 21 physicochemical parameters and results were compared with Mexican regulations for drinking water. Additionally, the CENAPRED database was searched for volcanic emissions taking place before each sampling event. Statistical analysis was done using Minitab 17, dot plots allowed us to see how chemical concentrations were modified at each sampling event, and how the data are dispersed over the whole concentration range. These results correlated with the number of emission events reported by CENAPRED. Even though most of the chemical parameters allowed us to classify the sampled waters as high quality ones, it is true that the results obtained allowed us to claim that volcanic emissions either as ash or water vapour strongly impact onto surface waters in the following chemical parameters: pH values are between 6.24 and 9.72 units, fluoride range corresponds to 0.1–0.97 ppm, nitrate 0.1–16.2 ppm, nitrite 0–23 ppm, chemical oxygen demand 0–91 ppm, lead 0–0.107 ppm, cadmium 0–0.031 ppm and manganese 0–0.06 ppm.

Keywords

volcanic ash, surface water, chemical quality, toxicity