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Report on Poas (Costa Rica) — 20 September-26 September 2006


Poas

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 20 September-26 September 2006
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2006. Report on Poas (Costa Rica) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 20 September-26 September 2006. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (20 September-26 September 2006)

Poas

Costa Rica

10.2°N, 84.233°W; summit elev. 2697 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


On 26 September at least two phreatic eruptions occurred at Poás. One during the night of 25 September reached a height of at least 350 m above the warm acid lake, depositing rock fragments, mud, and water in the southern part of the inner crater and outside the western part of the crater. Material ejected that night reached Trojas de Sarchí, almost 10 km SW. A smaller eruption on the morning of 26 September was limited to the area of the lake, and formed green-yellow semicircular zones of mud and sulfur up to 75 m in diameter.

Geological Summary. The broad vegetated edifice of Poás, one of the most active volcanoes of Costa Rica, contains three craters along a N-S line. The frequently visited multi-hued summit crater lakes of the basaltic-to-dacitic volcano are easily accessible by vehicle from the nearby capital city of San José. A N-S-trending fissure cutting the complex stratovolcano extends to the lower N flank, where it has produced the Congo stratovolcano and several lake-filled maars. The southernmost of the two summit crater lakes, Botos, last erupted about 7,500 years ago. The more prominent geothermally heated northern lake, Laguna Caliente, is one of the world's most acidic natural lakes, with a pH of near zero. It has been the site of frequent phreatic and phreatomagmatic eruptions since an eruption was reported in 1828. Eruptions often include geyser-like ejections of crater-lake water.

Source: Red Sismologica Nacional (RSN: UCR-ICE), Universidad de Costa Rica and Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad