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Report on Irazu (Costa Rica) — December 1981


Irazu

Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, vol. 6, no. 12 (December 1981)
Managing Editor: Lindsay McClelland.

Irazu (Costa Rica) No activity observed

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1981. Report on Irazu (Costa Rica) (McClelland, L., ed.). Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, 6:12. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.SEAN198112-345060



Irazu

Costa Rica

9.979°N, 83.852°W; summit elev. 3436 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


"The summit was visited on 19 November and 5 December. No activity was observed [but see 7:5 and 7:11]."

Geological Summary. The massive Irazú volcano in Costa Rica, immediately E of the capital city of San José, covers an area of 500 km2 and is vegetated to within a few hundred meters of its broad summit crater complex. At least 10 satellitic cones are located on its S flank. No lava effusion is known since the eruption of the Cervantes lava flows from S-flank vents about 14,000 years ago, and all known Holocene eruptions have been explosive. The focus of eruptions at the summit crater complex has migrated to the W towards the main crater, which contains a small lake. The first well-documented eruption occurred in 1723, and frequent explosive eruptions have occurred since. Ashfall from the last major eruption during 1963-65 caused significant disruption to San José and surrounding areas. Phreatic activity reported in 1994 may have been a landslide event from the fumarolic area on the NW summit (Fallas et al., 2018).

Information Contacts: R. Stoiber, S. Williams, H.R. Naslund, J.B. Gemmell, D. Sussman, Dartmouth College; D. Fajardo, Instituto de Investígaciones Sismicas, Nicaragua; E. Malavassi R. and J. Barquero H., Univ. Nacional, Heredia.