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Report on Poas (Costa Rica) — 6 September-12 September 2006


Poas

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 6 September-12 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, 6 September-12 September 2006. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (6 September-12 September 2006)

Poas

Costa Rica

10.2°N, 84.233°W; summit elev. 2697 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


OVSICORI-UNA reported that during August, Laguna Caliente, a summit lake of Poás, was gray in color and produced gas columns that reached the crater rim. The level of the lake had dropped 47 cm with respect to July measurements and had a temperature of 41 degrees Celsius. Fumarolic activity from a pyroclastic cone on the floor of the crater produced gas plumes that drifted W and SW. New points of gas discharge were noted from the crater floor, the SE and NE crater walls, the N terrace, and the NE edge of the crater.

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: Observatorio Vulcanologico y Sismologico de Costa Rica-Universidad Nacional (OVSICORI-UNA)