Central American Volcanoes Let Out Spectacular Eruptions

Five volcanoes across three Central American countries have people's attention after a restless weekend.
Volcano Fuego Eruption at Night
NikonAndy/Getty Images

Time for an update on a pile of volcanic rumbling, with a special focus on Central America:

Costa Rica

This weekend saw a couple of eruptions from volcanoes across the valley from each other. Turrialba had another strong explosive eruption on June 24 and it was captured on the RSN thermal webcam. If you watch the video, you can see how the volcano was somewhat calmly steaming before a strong increase in ash and other hot debris, forming billowing clouds emitting from the vent. Turrialba had 11 explosions over the weekend. That might sound dramatic, but none were as strong as what we were seeing in May, so overall, the activity at the volcano has lowered somewhat. On June 26, there was almost 10 hours of continuous ash emission, but none of the plumes topped 200 meters (~650 feet). By June 27, most of the seismic unrest at Turrialba had calmed. This doesn't mean we shouldn't continue on this rollercoaster of activity from the volcano, but for now, things have quieted.

Meanwhile, Poás had a few small explosions at the volcano's summit crater lake. Now, these explosions were likely steam-driven (phreatic) events rather than new magma reaching the surface, but could be signs of renewed activity. The last eruptive period at Poás ended in October 2014.

Guatemala

Two volcanoes in Guatemala continue their vigorous 2016. Fuego continued to produce lava and pyroclastic flows to go along with strong ash production. You can see the newest ~800 meter-long lava flows on the INSIVUMEH webcam pointed at Fuego and the volcano has been sending ash and debris over 5 kilometers (~16,500 feet) above sea level. The eruption lasted ~10 hours and due to this continued unrest at the volcano, the restriction zone of 2 kilometers around the vent. This new energetic phase at Fuego is likely to continue and potentially get stronger according to INSIVUMEH volcanologists.

Explosive eruptions from Santiaguito (part of Santa Maria) have been even more impressive (see below) than what we're seeing at Fuego. Ash has become a nuisance as far away as the Chiapas province in Mexico, 100 kilometers (~60 miles) from the volcano. These new explosions have sent ash 4-4.5 kilometers (13,000-15,000 feet) above sea level.

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