The Rincón de la Vieja volcano, located in northern Costa Rica, experienced a “powerful” eruption this Thursday without causing damage to people or infrastructure, authorities reported. Cyrill Müller, volcanologist of the Vulcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Ovsicori) of the National University (UNA), stated in a video that at 14:34 local time (20:34 GMT), the volcano made a significant eruption. The column of water vapor and volcanic material reached a height of 3,000 meters above the crater level.
This eruption was of the phreatic type, which occurs when hot magma interacts with water, which vaporizes and increases its volume a thousand times in a matter of seconds, generating an explosion. The Rincón de la Vieja volcano is one of the five active volcanoes in Costa Rica and is located in the Guanacaste region, about 270 kilometers northwest of San José.
So far, the volcano is at level 2 of an alert scale of 4, indicating “significant” seismicity and small eruptions with a “significant emission of acid gases,” according to the Vulcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica.
Müller mentioned that the eruption, which occurred a month after the last similar one, caused the formation of lahars on the northern flank of the volcano, which consist of a mixture of mud and hot water that is released from the lake during an eruption. These sediments descended down the slopes of the volcano and carried materials downhill, according to the National Emergency Center (CNE).
The CNE warned residents of towns near the volcano to stay away from waterways, as they could carry volcanic materials and sediments. The volcano has reportedly been active for the past month. Although the current eruption is the most energetic of the month, it is not the most intense of the year, according to Müller. Monitoring parameters indicate the possible presence of a small magma intrusion and volcanic ridges beneath the crater.
The Rincón de la Vieja volcano, a 1,895-meter-high massif located in Costa Rica’s central mountain range, crosses the center of the country from north to south.