Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
Volcano Status: Historical
Last Known Eruption: 2010 (continuing)
Summit Elevation: 1670 m 5,479 feet
Latitude: 10.463°N 10°27’48″N
Longitude: 84.703°W 84°42’12″W
The volcano lies directly adjacent to Lake Arenal, a dammed reservoir for generating hydroelectric power. The volcano has been watched by many tourists from a mountain lodge 2.8 kilometers (1.75 miles) south of the vent that enables visitors to hear, to see, and occasionally to smell its dynamism.
- Arenal Volcano
The conical Volcan Arenal is the youngest stratovolcano in Costa Rica and one of its most active. The 1,657-meter-high andesitic volcano towers above the eastern shores of Lake Arenal, which has been enlarged by a hydroelectric project. Arenal was constructed to the northwest of the older Chato volcano, which contains a 500-meter-wide summit crater. The activity of Chato ended about 3,500 years ago, and the oldest known Arenal rocks are only 2,900 years old. Growth of Arenal has been characterized by periodic major explosive eruptions at several-hundred-year intervals and periods of lava effusion that armor the cone. Arenal’s most recent eruptive period began with a major explosive eruption in 1968. Continuous explosive activity accompanied by slow lava effusion and the occasional emission of pyroclastic flows has occurred since then from vents at the summit and on the upper western flank.
Arenal Volcano (Frank Kehren)
Arenal Volcano (Scott Ableman)
Arenal Volcano
Originally posted 2010-07-06 10:45:29.
