Rincón de la Vieja, Costa Rica

Volcano Type: Complex volcano
Volcano Status: Historical
Last Known Eruption: 1998
Summit Elevation: 1916 m 6,286 feet
Latitude: 10.830°N  10°49’48″N
Longitude: 85.324°W 85°19’26″W

Rincon de la Vieja, the largest volcano in northwest Costa Rica, is a remote volcanic complex in the Guanacaste Range consisting of an elongated, arcuate NNW-SSE-trending ridge. At least nine eruptive vents are located within an older 15-kilometer-wide caldera remnant, with activity migrating to the southeast, where the youngest-looking craters are located. The twin cone of 1,916-meter-high Santa Maria volcano, the highest peak of the Rincon complex, is located at the eastern end of a smaller, 5-kiloeter-wide caldera and has a 500-meter-wide crater. A Plinian eruption producing the 0.25 cubic kilometers Rio Blanca tephra about 3,500 years ago was the last major magmatic eruption from the volcano. All subsequent eruptions, including numerous historical eruptions possibly dating back to the 16th century, have been from the Active Crater, which contains a 500-meter-wide crater lake.

Rincón de la Vieja Crater Lake

Rincón de la Vieja, is situated along the volcanic front of Central America, at or just southeast of a postulated boundary between eastern Nicaragua and Costa Rican segments of the Cocos-Caribbean subduction zone (Stoiber and Carr, 1983).

Rincón de la Vieja, the largest volcano in northern Costa Rica, consists of six volcanic centers that form an elongate ridge, built on a shield of ignimbrites. Healy (1969) outlined a large, 15-20 kilometer diameter caldera within which the present ridge-shaped volcano has grown. Carr and others (1986) concurred with this interpretation and outlined another nested, 5-kilometer-diameter caldera on the Rincón de la Vieja edifice.

Most historical eruptions of Rincón de la Vieja have been vulcanian, Strombolian, or phreatic explosions from the central crater of the complex.

Mud Pots

Part of the complex summit region of Rincón de la Vieja, the largest volcano in NW Costa Rica, is seen here from the north. Steam rises from the lake-filled Cráter Activo at the left, ENE of the shallow 1895-m-high Von Seebach crater (upper right). Laguna Fria (upper left) is not a crater lake, but a freshwater lake that formed between overlapping cones of the summit complex, which extends east and west beyond the area of this photo. Frequent historical eruptions from Cráter Activo have left surrounding terrain unvegetated and scarred by erosional gullies.

Waterfalls in Rincón de la Vieja

Waterfalls in Rincón de la Vieja

Originally posted 2010-07-06 11:02:26.