February 8, 2016 - COSTA RICA - On Saturday afternoon, geologists at the Observatory on Volcanology and
Seismology at the National University of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym:
OVSICORI) reported a new eruption at the Turrialba Volcano, the most
active colossus in their country.
The volcanic event took place about ten minutes before 2:00 pm during a warm, yet extremely windy, afternoon.
The seismographic sensors of the OVSICORI began stirring after 1:50 pm,
at which time the scientists on duty activated their crater cameras to
capture the eruption.
In the beginning, the eruption was mostly a slow emanation of volcanic ash and noxious gases.
About ten minutes into the natural event, a more powerful ejection
occurred and a solid plume formed about 500 meters into the air.
Thanks to the crisp weather conditions and the clear-blue afternoon
skies, the eruption on the western crater was visible from the summit of
the nearby Irazu volcano.
Chemistry experts at the OVSICORI combined their observations with data
from the Institute of Meteorology to provide a forecast of where the ash
clouds were headed yesterday.
To this effect, they used the AERMOD atmospheric dispersion
modeling system to create a forecast that indicated a northwesterly
direction high over Guapiles and passing over most of the Heredia
province on municipal elections day.
Some ash fell on the vegetation and crops of the massive Finca La Picada
farm near the volcano. Elsewhere, a strong smell of sulfur was detected
by neighbors in Concepcion de Heredia.
As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, past activity
from the Turrialba has disrupted daily life with school and airport
closures as well as diminished farming operations; nonetheless, that
does not seem to be the case at this time.
The National Committee on Emergencies has kept a yellow alert active
through most of the Turrialba Volcano National Park to dissuade tourists
and unauthorized personnel from coming close to the crater. - The Big Wobble.
December 9, 2015 - CRIMEA, RUSSIA - An eruption of a mud volcano has occurred in the Leninsky district of
Crimea near the village of Novoselovka.
The mass of soil stopped at a
distance of 100 meters from the village.
The information was announced at a meeting of the inter-agency staff on
eliminating the consequences of the emergency situation caused by the
energy crisis by the head of the Lenin district administration Alexander
Machussky, Tass reports.
He also made a request to send experts to the area in order to assess the current situation. - Vestnik Kavkaza.
An ash explosion at Turrialba Volcano lasted for about 10 minutes, the University of Costa Rica’s National Seismological Network reported. (Via RSN/UCR)
This is the second event this month after another 10-minute explosion recorded on Dec. 7. also spewed ash and gases into the air.
Experts from UNA’s Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) reported the explosion reached just under 400 meters in height.
UCR’s Mauricio Mora at 2:30 reported there were no more explosions. Mora was conducting an inspection in the volcano’s surrounding areas and said experts are evaluating whether the explosion was an isolated event or is part of an eruptive process.
OVSICORI on its website reported that current wind conditions likely would take the ash west, and residents northeast of the capital – such as in Coronado and Sabanilla – could experience ash falling on their roofs and properties.
Turrialba Volcano has seen constant activity that in the past five years has prompted several evacuations of residents and farm animals.
Staff from the National System of Conservation Areas posted a picture of
ash covering one of their vehicles in the community of La Central, on
the outskirts of Turrialba volcano.
OVSICORI took a selection from a seismograph registered inside Turrialba Volcano's central crater and converted it into a sound file. The effectallows you to "hear" the volcano's sub-audible rumbling.
This particular example was mostly for fun, but Dr. Javier Pacheco, a
seismology expert at OVSICORI, said that the technique had practical
uses for scientists too.
Converting the seismographs into audio files
can help scientists identify variations in the frequency of
seismological activity that would be difficult to identify visually from
the readouts alone, he explained.
Turrialba Volcano has been active during the last several months, closing Juan SantamarÃa International Airport several times after large eruptions of ash that blew across the Central Valley.
The eruption comes less than a week after the volcano shot a tower of ash 2.5 kilometers into the air, shutting down Juan SantamarÃa International Airport for the third time since March.
Since Turrialba Volcano re-awoke last October, volcanic ash has dirtied homes, damaged crops and mucked up travel plans. With its frequent eruptions, the volcano has gone from an interesting diversion to a nuisance for nearby residents and visitors.
And experts say the worst is yet to come.
Future eruptions, they say, could jeopardize the health of humans and the environment. They could also cause serious economic damage.
“There is a very high possibility that [the volcano] will reach a higher level of activity,” said Lidier Esquivel, the chief investigator of risk management for the National Emergency Commission (CNE).
Scientists with both the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) and the National Seismological Network (RSN) expect Turrialba’s eruptions to gradually increase over the next few months until the volcano is erupting on a near weekly basis. Scientists have also confirmed that lava has reached the surface.
“The volcano is already throwing lava, it is fragmented lava that is creating the ash,” Guillermo Alvarado, coordinator for volcanic and seismic threats and monitoring for the Costa Rican Electricity Institute, said during a volcano roundtable event last week.
Alvarado said these lava fragments actually create a natural form of glass, which when inhaled can pose serious health risks to both animals and humans. Children, the elderly and people with pre-existing respiratory problems are especially at risk when breathing in ash.
“At this point there have been very few serious health problems to arise, but ash can cause respiratory problems, throat problems and burning in the eyes or skin.” Esquivel said. “As more people are regularly exposed to volcanic ash, we expect to see these problems in a larger portion of the population.”
The ash can also kill plants, contaminate water supplies and damage electronic equipment.
The ash has already done its fair share of damage. Within 5 kilometers of the volcano, ash and acid rain have killed off crops, damaged homes and contaminated rivers. Three schools in the area have been forced to close each time the volcano erupts. And there have been reports of some residents developing respiratory problems.
If conditions continue to worsen, the area may have to be evacuated.
While the immediate vicinity of the volcano is the most vulnerable to ash damage, emergency officials are growing increasingly concerned about the rest of the country.
WATCH: Volcanologists warn possible avalanches of the Turrialba volcano.
May 6, 2015 - COSTA RICA - Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano belched a column of gas and ash upwards of 6,000ft into the air on Monday (4 May).
An explosion on Monday afternoon lasting 28 minutes emanated from the volcano in central Costa Rica and ash reached parts of the capital San Jose some 30 miles away.
Costa Rica's international airport was reopened on Tuesday morning after the eruption of the nearby volcano blanketed runways with ash, forcing its closure overnight. Ash can affect the safety of flights during take-off and landing as well as damage engines.
The Turrialba volcano spewed thick black clouds of ash into the sky, a volcanologist for the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Obsivori), Eliecer Duarte, said.
"Yesterday's event at 3.20pm lasted 28 minutes. In 20 minutes the ash spread 6.2 miles and reached the other camera which is in Irazu, towards the south east. It rose vertically more than 6,561ft and spewed different sized material. Some stayed on the summit and other finer material flew distances reaching the central valley."
Last month, the volcano's most powerful eruption in two decades was recorded forcing the evacuation of residents from the surrounding area. - IBT.
WATCH: Costa Rica Turrialba volcano spews out 2 km-high plume of smoke, ash near capital.
The latest eruption of the Turrialba volcano sent a column of ash 6,500 feet into the air. (OVSICORI)
April 23, 2015 - COSTA RICA - Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano
erupted again Tuesday afternoon, producing a column of ash, gas, and
water vapor that reached some 6,500 feet over the volcano's crater,
according to the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa
Rica (OVSICORI).
The eruption began at 4:04 p.m. and continued for 22
minutes, according to OVSICORI.
Constant seismic activity has been
recorded at the volcano since Saturday, and local residents have
reported a strong smell of sulfur for the last several days.
San Jose's Tobias Bolanos Airport announced a partial closure of the
airport Tuesday evening due to potential ashfall, but was back to normal
operation by Wednesday morning.
An eruption of similar magnitude most
recently occurred on Tuesday, April 7th.
April 16, 2015 - COSTA RICA - Scientists believe they’ve found fresh lava at Costa Rica’s Turrialba
Volcano, which may indicate that the volcano has moved into a more
active phase. Still, others say it’s too soon to tell.
According to a post on the network’s Facebook page, volcanologists found what they believe to be large blocks of fresh, cooled lava near the crater of the volcano. They think that the lava was ejected during an eruption on April 7 at 2:07 a.m., when the volcano was observed ejecting hot rocks and ash two kilometers into the sky.
Volcanologists have suspected the volcano may be erupting fresh lava since incandescent material was observed near the crater during an eruption on March 12. The RSN said discovery of the fragments on Friday confirms that juvenile lava material is being ejected from the volcano.
But vulcanologists with the National University’s Volcanological and Seismological Observatory (OVSICORI) — Costa Rica’s other leading authority on volcanoes and earthquakes — say more studies need to be conducted before the rocks can be confirmed as fresh lava.
“So far we have only seen photos of these fragments,” MarÃa MartÃnez, a geochemist with OVSICORI, told The Tico Times. “While these fragments could be fresh lava, they could also be something else.”
According to MartÃnez, the fragments displayed by RSN appear to have undergone a chemical reaction. This indicates that the magma — which is the same hot fluid as lava, but still inside the volcano — may have undergone a chemical cooling process underground, and reached the surface as solid rock.
Another possibility, MartÃnez said, is that a chunk of old cooled magma inside the volcano was dislodged during the last explosion, melted down and re-cooled. In both of these cases, the fragments would not be considered fresh lava.
Fragments found near the crater of Turrialba Volcano are believed to be fresh, cooled lava. Courtesy of RSN
Regardless of whether or not the fragments are lava, OVSICORI said
that the April 7 eruption marked a significant step forward in volcanic
activity at Turrialba. During field inspections more than a day after
the eruption, scientists used a thermal imaging camera to study the
volcano and noticed that some of the rocks ejected during the eruption
were unusually hot.
“We’ve reached the conclusion that the rocks ejected during the April 7 eruption are coming from much deeper within the volcano,” MartÃnez said. “The eruptions are coming from gradually deeper areas and building pressure that could bring magma towards the surface.”
That means the magma inside Turrialba Volcano could be much closer to the crater than scientists originally thought.
Since 2010, both RSN and OVSICORI have estimated the magma inside Turrialba to be around three kilometers below the earth’s surface. But the hot rocks reveal that it may be closer to one kilometer below the surface.
This also means that the rocks recovered by RSN very well could be fresh lava, which indicates the volcano has passed on to a more serious phase of activity.
Turrialba Volcano has been in a phreatic eruption phase since 2010, where water is heated below the volcano’s surface and ejected out of the crater along with ash, gas and sometimes rocks. The presence of fresh lava would mean Turrialba is in a phreatomagmatic phase where magma is also lifted to the surface during an eruption.
Phreatomagmatic eruptions often eject large rocks, can shoot lava and are much more dangerous. If Turrialba has entered a phreatomagmatic phase then eruptions will become more frequent and violent, and will require the country to begin considering taking more protective measures.
“This could become a big problem for the country,” MartÃnez said. “The people who live in the area are exposed to greater and greater danger every day.” - Tico Times.
April 7, 2015 - COSTA RICA - Turrialba Volcano is at it again.
The Volcanological and Seismological Observatory (OVSICORI)
released video Tuesday of an eruption at 2:07 a.m., when a column of
hot rocks and ash rocketed out of the colossus. The eruption sent ash 2
kilometers into the air.
The eruption’s most dramatic moment comes 14 seconds into the video
when a rush of heat from the crater flashes white on the screen.
Ash and sulphur smells from the eruption were reported as far away as
Cuidad Quesada and across Alajuela, Escazú, Heredia and Curridabat,
among other places. See the map from OVSICORI for more details:
A crowdsourced map of ash and sulphur smells from the April 7, 2015 eruption at Turrialba Volcano. (Courtesy OVSICORI)
OVSICORI said on its Facebook page that it was investigating the eruption to see if it was related to the volcano’s recent activity.
WATCH: Observatory Releases Time-Lapse Video Of Costa Rican Volcano Erupting.
OVSICORI's equipment also registered a small,three-minute tremor at the time of the eruption.
OVSICORI is asking people who witness ash to report its location on their website.
In March, a similar eruption shut down
the Juan SantamarÃa International Airport stranding thousands of
travelers, while eruptions in October and November of last year caused
severe damage to the crops and livestock surrounding Turrialba.
March 14, 2015 - COSTA RICA -
Juan SantamarÃa International Airport will remain closed until at least
8:00 a.m. Friday, March 13, according to airport administration. Airport
spokeswoman Silvia Chávez said that the Friday re-opening was
conditional on overnight activity at Turrialba Volcano.
UPDATED at 5 p.m. with information on affected flights.
Falling ash from Costa Rica's Turrialba Volcano
closed the country's Juan SantamarÃa International Airport on Thursday
afternoon at approximately 4:00 p.m., according to airport management.
As of 5:00 p.m., there were 10 affected flights.
Seven flights are grounded: 1 Iberia flight, 2 Avianca flights, 1 Copa flights, 1 Air Canada flight, and 2 cargo flights.
Three flights are in the air and unable to land: 2 Copa flights and 1 FedEx cargo flight.
A list of the airport's upcoming flight departures and their status can be found on its website.
An airport spokeswoman said conditions had improved as of 5:00 p.m. but
the airport remained indefinitely closed. Inspectors at the airport are
assessing the safety of the runway.
The Public Security
Ministry's Air Surveillance Service says ash poses a risk to planes
because of obscured visibility and because it can interfere with the
plane's jets or propellers.
The new explosions follow one that occurred at 4:30 a.m. Friday and four on Thursday.
The Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI)'s web cameras recorded the explosions Friday. The agency reported that columns of material reached some 1,500 meters high (4,921 feet), similar to those recorded on Thursday.
Spewings of ash and gases lasted for periods of some 30 minutes, OVSICORI reported.
"So far, we don't
have any visual confirmation on magma levels rising up," he said,
"however the characteristics of the explosions suggest magma levels
could be increasing inside the crater," he said Friday morning.
Earlier on Friday, National Police officers closed all main access
roads to the volcano, allowing passage only to residents and workers in
nearby communities.
Following recommendations of the National
Emergency Commission, Public Education Ministry officials suspended
classes in 19 schools: 12 in Turrialba and 7 in other cantons of
Cartago.
False rumor of water contamination
Hundreds of people reacted with alarm Friday morning to rumors
circulating on social networks that the water supply in the metropolitan
area had been contaminated by ash.
But Costa Rica's Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) reported Friday that the volcano's activity had not affected drinking water.
AyA Executive President Yamileth Astorga said the rumors were completely false.
"At the time there is no need to issue any public alert on water contamination," she said.
Astorga said experts at AyA's National Water Laboratory are conducting
frequent monitoring at all water distribution plants. In case of any
detected contamination, AyA would immediately cut off the contaminated
supply.
Still, Astorga advised the population to keep fresh
water on hand as a precaution, in case any increase in the volcano's
activity compromises the water supply in coming days. - The Tico Times.
Costa Rica’s Turrialba Volcano erupts, as seen from 14,000 feet at 8:29
a.m. on Oct. 30, 2014. (OVSICORI-UNA, via The Tico Times)
November 3, 2014 - COSTA RICA - According to the National
Seismological Network (RSN), the sudden eruption of Turrialba last
Wednesday night was the volcano’s largest in 150 years. Costa Rica-based
online-newspaper ‘The Tico Times’ reports that it was a massive
phreatic explosion that spewed out ash, rocks and possibly magma.
Experts
from the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and National University (UNA)
reported increased seismic activity on Wednesday afternoon, culminating
in explosive activity at 11:10 p.m. with the ash cloud from the
explosion reaching several hundred meters.
The eruption was
followed by strong rumblings and ash covering roofs, gardens, roads and
cars across different parts of central Costa Rica.
The volcano is
located merely 60 km northeast of the Costa Rican capital of San Jose
but the area close to the volcano has been largely deserted since the
renewal of volcanic activity in 2010.
Upon the eruption, National
Emergency Commission (CNE) officials along with UNA and UCR
vulcanologists went to the area to conduct on-the-ground evaluations of
the volcano’s activity.
They reported that spewing of gas, vapour
and ash is concentrated in two of the volcano’s craters and that
activity remained constant on Thursday morning. - Volcano Discovery.
Ash from Costa Rica's Turrialba Volcano reaches province of Limón
The Turrialba Volcano has expelled
rocks up to 1 meter in diameter at a distance of some 400 meters from
the crater. Volcanologists estimate
rocks were shot out at speeds
greater than 100 kilometers per hour. (Courtesy of OVSICORI)
Among
the observations by volcanologists conducting weekend inspections in
the area around Costa Rica’s Turrialba Volcano were craters in the earth
measuring up to one meter in diameter – the result of rocks shooting
out from the volcano.
Experts from the National Seismological
Network (RSN) and the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of
Costa Rica (OVSICORI) conducted the inspections in light of significant activity at the volcano that started last week.
RSN
volcanologist Gino González Ilama said the areas of impact are located
on the south side of the volcano and cover 80 percent of the slope up to
400 meters from the volcano’s crater.
“We observed the impact of
volcanic rock that had caused several craters on the ground. We believe
the rocks were shot out of the volcano at speeds greater than 100
kilometers per hour, and this proves there is strong activity inside,”
González said.
A site near the Turrialba Volcano’s crater. The Tico Times
“The Turrialba Volcano is very active,” González said. “The hole formed after the first explosion
has grown and is about 150 meters long and 100 meters wide. It’s
getting bigger, and the volcano’s walls continue collapsing because
explosions of gas, ash and rock are constant. We also found small
amounts of lava.”
WATCH: Video of the hole inside the crater by OVSICORI volcanologist Geoffroy Avard. The video shows an increase in the hole’s diameter.
Volcanologists on Sunday reported two types of
eruptions taking place: phreatic – which entails gases, mud and ash –
and strombolian – which contains magma and ash.
Turrialba Volcano
showed signs of activity in 2010 with phreatic explosions. According to
OVSICORI, magma hasn’t been expelled from the volcano since 1866. - Tico Times.
October 31, 2014 - COSTA RICA
- The biggest eruption in a century at a volcano in Costa Rica has
rained ash over the Central American country and prompted authorities to
evacuate some communities.
Emergency services and scientists
remained on high alert on Friday after the overnight explosion at the
Turrialba volcano, close to the capital San Jose.
Volcanologist Gino Gonzalez said that the volcano had been rumbling and producing seismic activity since Wednesday evening.
He said the explosion caused the side of the crater to collapse, and ashfall was recorded in four provinces.
Smoke columns rising from the Turrialba Volcano after an eruption.
"We
saw fiery explosions. We must confirm whether it was lava or burning
material that fell so spectacularly," Raul Mora, a volcano expert with
the National Seismological Network told local television, adding the
volcano was highly active.
The last time Turrialba spewed lava was around 1863, Mora said.
The national park around the volcano has been closed since 2010, when
it also spewed ash, as a precautionary measure, according to the
emergency services.
A yellow alert was declared for communities
near the volcano, which were evacuated. Agriculture Ministry officials
were attending to some 400 head of cattle on Friday in areas where ash
fell. - Telegraph.
