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Isla del Coco

Photo of this volcano
  • Country
  • Volcanic Region
  • Landform | Volc Type
  • Last Known Eruption
  • 5.53°N
  • 87.082°W

  • 575 m
    1,886 ft

  • 345811
  • Latitude
  • Longitude

  • Summit
    Elevation

  • Volcano
    Number

The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports available for Isla del Coco.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Isla del Coco.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Isla del Coco.

This compilation of synonyms and subsidiary features may not be comprehensive. Features are organized into four major categories: Cones, Craters, Domes, and Thermal Features. Synonyms of features appear indented below the primary name. In some cases additional feature type, elevation, or location details are provided.

Eruptive History

The Global Volcanism Program is not aware of any Holocene eruptions from Isla del Coco. If this volcano has had large eruptions (VEI >= 4) prior to 12,000 years ago, information might be found on the Isla del Coco page in the LaMEVE (Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions) database, a part of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

Deformation History

There is no Deformation History data available for Isla del Coco.

Emission History

There is no Emissions History data available for Isla del Coco.

Photo Gallery

Clouds partially obscure the 22 km2 Isla del Coco (Cocos Island) in this NASA International Space Station image. Chathan Bay (top) lies off the NE tip of the island, which sits astride the Cocos Ridge about 650 km SW of the Costa Rican port of Puntarenas. The rain-drenched island is renowned as the site of treasures buried by pirates and ship captains. Construction of a Pliocene-Pleistocene shield volcano was followed by caldera formation and the emplacement of a trachytic lava dome.

NASA International Space Station image ISS004-E-7510, 2002 (http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/).
The low profile of Isla del Coco is seen from the NE, taken from the R/V Searcher of the University of Costa Rica. The 22 km2 rain-drenched island was discovered by the Spanish pilot Juan Cabezas around 1526 CE, and the Costa Rican flag was first planted on the island in 1869. Isla del Coco is the only subaerial portion of the Cocos Ridge, which extends from the Galápagos hot spot to the Mesoamerican trench. Construction of a Pliocene-Pleistocene shield volcano was followed by caldera formation and the emplacement of a trachytic lava dome.

Photo by Pat Castillo, 1984 (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego).
Outcrops of trachyte form cliffs on the northern side of Isla Coco. Seabirds perch on lines of the R/V Searcher of the University of Costa Rica. A massive trachytic lava dome lies between Bahia Wafer and Bahia Chathan on the NE side of the island.

Photo by Pat Castillo, 1984 (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego).
The light-colored pyramidal island at the left is a small island of trachytic rocks between Bahia Wafer and Bahia Chathan, on the NE side of Cocos Island. The plug-like islet lies north of a massive lava dome lying between the two bays and consisting of flow-banded benmoreitic, trachytic, and quartz trachytic rocks.

Photo by Pat Castillo, 1984 (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego).
Geologist Eric Fernandez examines an outcrop of pyroclastic rocks along the banks of the Río Genio, on the northern side of Cocos Island. Pyroclastic rocks were erupted either immediately prior to or contemporaneously with trachytic rocks forming a lava dome. Pyroclastic rocks are thickest on the northern side of the island, which may represent the topographic high of the old seamount.

Photo by Pat Castillo, 1984 (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego).
Erosional remnants of the widespread pyroclastic rock unit at the NW corner of Cocos Island form small offshore islets. Pyroclastic rock units are thickest at the NE side of the island, south of the large trachytic lava dome between Bahia Wafer and Bahia Chathan, but are also exposed along the NW, SW, and southern coasts, and in the SW and eastern interior of the island.

Photo by Pat Castillo, 1984 (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego).
The 22 km2 Isla del Coco (Cocos Islands) is the subaerial portion of the Cocos Ridge, shown in this December 2019 Planet Labs satellite image monthly mosaic (N is at the top). A Pliocene-Pleistocene shield volcano partly forms the roughly 7-km-long (in the NE-SW direction) island. Steep cliffs around the coast expose thick columnar-jointed lava flows, thin lavas, and breccias (possibly debris flows).

Satellite image courtesy of Planet Labs Inc., 2019 (https://www.planet.com/).
GVP Map Holdings

The Global Volcanism Program has no maps available for Isla del Coco.

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

There are no samples for Isla del Coco in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences Rock and Ore collection.

External Sites