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New eruption of Turrialba volcano, Costa Rica

new-eruption-of-turrialba-volcano-costa-rica

Another eruption of Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano occurred at 02:24 UTC today (21:24 local time on December 8). Ash fall and strong sulfur smell was reported in areas up to 40 km from the volcano.

Gino Gonzalez, volcanologist at the National Seismological Network, said a team would visit the volcano to see the magnitude of the eruption which he describes as "important".

The National Emergency Commission said a Yellow alert is still in place.

Turrialba experienced a relatively large eruption starting at 05:10 UTC on October 30, 2014. The eruption lasted about 25 minutes and ended with a large explosion.  According to the National Seismological Network, that was Turrialba’s largest eruption in 150 years which managed to merge two of the volcano's craters.

The last time this volcano appeared in GVP's weekly volcanic report was during the week of November 12 – 18, 2014:

"OVSICORI-UNA reported an explosion from Turrialba that started at 19:26 local time on November 13 which lasted about 10 minutes. Another explosion occurred at 1342 on 14 November and lasted about 15 minutes, although the strongest part was 7 minutes long. National park officials reported ashfall at the top of Irazú. Volcanologists observed the 14 November explosion and collected samples at Hacienda La Central, 3 km SE of West Crater."

Turrialba live webcam

Image credit: OVSICORI-UNA

Geologic summary

Turrialba, the easternmost of Costa Rica's Holocene volcanoes, is a large vegetated basaltic-to-dacitic stratovolcano located across a broad saddle NE of Irazú volcano overlooking the city of Cartago. The massive 3340-m-high Turrialba is exceeded in height only by Irazú, covers an area of 500 sq km, and is one of Costa Rica's most voluminous volcanoes. Three well-defined craters occur at the upper SW end of a broad 800 x 2200 m summit depression that is breached to the NE.

Most activity originated from the summit vent complex, but two pyroclastic cones are located on the SW flank. Five major explosive eruptions have occurred during the past 3500 years. A series of explosive eruptions during the 19th century were sometimes accompanied by pyroclastic flows. Fumarolic activity continues at the central and SW summit craters. (GVP)

Featured image: NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data provided by the NASA EO-1 team. Acquired January 10, 2010.

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