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Volcanos
of Costa Rica

Help from USGS
Costa Rica is home to more
than 60 Volcanoes.
They are distribuited along
the Central Volcanic Mountain Range, Tilarana
Mountain Range and Guanacaste Mountain Range.
How ever, only 6 of these
are considered active, being each one very
diferent.
The
actove volcanoes are:
Arenal
Volcano, Costa Rica
Location: Costa Rica
Latitude: 10.463 N
Longitude: 84.703 W
Height: 1,657 meters (5,437
feet)
Type: Stratovolcano
Lastest Eruptions: Currently Active
Remarks: The volcano lies
directly adjacent to Lake Arenal, a dammed
reservoir for generating hydroelectric power.
The volcano has been watched by many tourists
from a mountain lodge 2.8 kilometers (1.75
miles) south of the vent that enables visitors
to hear, to see, and occasionally to smell
its dynamism
Irazú
Costa Rica's highest volcano,
Irazú has a broad summit, vegetated
flanks, and a history of frequent eruptions
going back to 1723. Its last eruption, 1963-65,
sent tephra and secondary mudflows into
cultivated areas, caused at least 20 deaths,
and destroyed 400 houses and some factories.
...
Miravalles
Miravalles (2,208 meters)
is an andesitic stratovolcano that is one
of five post-caldera cones along a northeast-trending
line within the Pleistocene, 15 x 20 kilometer
Miravalles caldera. Morphologically youthful
lava flows cover the western and SW flanks
of the volcano. The only reported historical
eruptive activity was a small steam explosion
in 1946, although high heat flow remains
and a geothermal field is located within
the caldera.
Poás
Poás, one of the most
active volcanoes of Costa Rica, is a broad,
well-vegetated volcano with a summit area
containing three craters along a north-south
line. The frequently visited multi-hued
summit craters of one of Costa Rica's most
prominent natural landmarks are accessible
by vehicle. The 2,708-meter-high complex
stratovolcano is constructed within eroded
remnants of nested 7- and 3-kilometer-wide
calderas. A north-south-trending fissure
extending to the lower north flank has produced
the Congo stratovolcano and several maars.
The southernmost of two summit crater lakes,
Botos, is cold and clear, and last erupted
about 7,500 years ago. The other is warm
and acid and has been the site of frequent
phreatic and phreatomagmatic eruptions since
the first historical eruption was reported
in 1828. Poás eruptions often include
geyser-like ejection of crater lake water.
Rincón
de la Vieja
Rincon de la Vieja, the largest
volcano in northwest Costa Rica, is a remote
volcanic complex in the Guanacaste Range
consisting of an elongated, arcuate NNW-SSE-trending
ridge. At least nine eruptive vents are
located within an older 15-kilometer-wide
caldera remnant, with activity migrating
to the southeast, where the youngest-looking
craters are located. The twin cone of 1,916-meter-high
Santa Maria volcano, the highest peak of
the Rincon complex, is located at the eastern
end of a smaller, 5-kiloeter-wide caldera
and has a 500-meter-wide crater. A Plinian
eruption producing the 0.25 cubic kilometers
Rio Blanca tephra about 3,500 years ago
was the last major magmatic eruption from
the volcano. All subsequent eruptions, including
numerous historical eruptions possibly dating
back to the 16th century, have been from
the Active Crater, which contains a 500-meter-wide
crater lake.
Turrialba
Turrialba, (3,340 meters)
the southeast-most of Costa Rica's Holocene
volcanoes, is a large vegetation-covered
stratovolcano located to the northeast of
Irazu volcano. Three well-defined craters
occur at the upper end of a broad summit
depression that is breached to the northeast.
Turrialba has been quiescent since a series
of explosive eruptions in the 19th century
that were sometimes accompanied by pyroclastic
flows. Fumarolic activity continues at the
summit craters.

Crater of Volcan Irazu

Hot Water Springs and Hot
Mud and MIneral Bath at Rincon de la Vieja

Poas Volcano - The largest
crater in the world

Arenal Volcano - The most
active volcano
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