By Wendy Anders

On October 29, 2014, just before midnight, the Turrialba Volcano blasted an eruption that sent nearby residents fleeing from their homes, as reported by the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (Ovsicori-UNA).

No one was hurt in this renewal of the volcano’s active phase, luckily.

Now, after two straight years of fits and bouts of activity, the ashy plumes have become an almost commonplace occurrence for the towns and cities surrounding Cartago’s fiery peak.

For the past roughly 50 straight days, the colossus has been belching ash, gas and vapor.

Volcanologists, who witnessed the initial strombolian eruption recorded, “A loud explosion was initially perceived and observed like a column of red hot incandescent rocks; they hit each other and fell in and around the crater. Within seconds, the size of the column of incandescent material rose to about 150 meters, there was the sound of the crash of rocks,” said ElMundo.Cr, a Costa Rican digital media, in a recent news report.

Major eruptions over the past two years have occurred on Nov. 1 and 8, 2014; then a few months later there were four large eruptions on March 12, 2015 that caused San José’s two Juan Santamaria and Tobias Bolaños airports to close.

On April 5 and 7, 2015 there were more large eruptions of up to 1,500 ms with ash blown as far as 80 kms distant to San Carlos.

Then even larger columns of ash reaching 2,000 ms were observed on April  23 and 24. And on May 4, its largest recent eruption occurred, in which rocks were ejected out of the mountain and landed 4 kilometers away.

The calm was punctuated by eruptions last Oct. 31, and then there was a calm period again until May of 2016. From May 1-5 there were eruptions, and again on May 16, and for several more days.

On May 20 this year, a column of ash 3,000 meters coated the Central Valley gray. And a day after that eruption, another one threw ash 2,500 meters high. On May 24, in the evening hours, a plume of ash reached 3,500 meters, and large eruptions continued for several more days.

June 2-4 brought more eruptions. Due to a change in wind, the ash from these was carried easterly and damaged farms in the Limón region.

June and July were very active months for the volcano, and varying winds carried ash in variable directions. Then there was a calm until mid-September; and since then the emanations have been constant, only varying in their intensity.

On September 19, several major eruptions again affected the entire Central Valley, this time ash even reached the Pacific port of Puntarenas. The ash was so dense that international and local flights were interrupted for a day.

So, stay tuned for more pyroclastic action from the Turrialba.