A series of earthquakes and more than 70 seismic swarms and counting since early Thursday evening in the area of the Poas Volcano have the country’s authorities on alert.
One of the strongest, a 4.8 magnitude, occurred at 7:32 pm Thursday night in the area of Toro Amarillo, in the community of Valverde Vega, on the north side the of the colossus. The Red Sismológica Nacional (RSN) – National Seismological Network – reported the other earthquakes, vulconologista 4.6 Mw at 5:52 pm, a 4.2 Mw at 6:17 pm, while at 6:25 pm a 2.5 Mw was recorded.
The Cuerpo de Bomberos (Fire Department) and Cruz Roja (Red Cross) activated their earthquake emergency protocol, while the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE) – national emergency commission – reported no damages or casualties as 911 calls flooded in last night.
For its part, the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismólogico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori) – Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica – confirmed that at the moment the activity of the Poás volcano is normal.
Experts say the tremors arise from a local fault. The Poas volcano is surrounded by numerous faults.
This morning, at the break of dawn, a plume of gas and ash could be seen above the volcano’s crater, a pool of magma could be observed from the still photos. Marvulcanologist at the Ovsicori, said there is no lava lagoon at this time and is impossible to determine how far the lava has risen from inside the colossus.
