Rincón de la Vieja volcano activity closely followed in Costa Rica

San José, Sep 12 (Prensa Latina) Costa Rican volcanologists are monitoring today the Rincón de la Vieja colossus, which has been active for several weeks and with the possibility of major eruptions. The Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Ovsicori) maintains that the volcano is in a new eruptive cycle and from August 25 to date it has issued 13 eruptions and 11 exhalations. This type of expulsion is characterized by having a magma of extreme temperatures, which, when exposed to water, causes the heat generated on the ground or surface of the volcano to produce very rapid evaporation and cause a large explosion of steam, water or ash, explained the institution.

September 12, 2023
13:45

Ovsicori specialists specify that this new period in which the volcano entered is not isolated. Likewise, the strongest expulsion this year occurred on April 21. However, it was of lower energy and dimensions than the one that occurred on July 28, 2021.

It is a very dynamic system, which is subject to changes in the eruptive period. This is evidenced by statistics that show that between the month of May and June 2023 alone, 58 eruptions occurred, they add.

After this increase in activity, geologists always recommend caution and avoid areas of greater volcanic risk such as the top of the volcano and nearby rivers, where lahars or hot mud flows have descended over the years.

This massif has the particularity that after an eruption, the lahars transport mud, hot logs and sediments from the crater lake to the rivers, which represent a threat to nearby communities.

The Rincón de la Vieja volcano is a stratovolcano located in the northwest of the country, in the canton (municipality) of Liberia in the northern province of Guanacaste. It has a height of 1,895 meters above sea level, and is part of the Rincón de la Vieja National Park, belonging to the Guanacaste Conservation Area, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999.

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