Small Lava Lake at Turrialba Volcano Photo Credit: M.Sc. Paul Vega, LANAMME-UCR.

Earlier this week we reported on the activity at Poás Volcano which has presented several strombolian eruptions with ejection of small lava bombs; today the National Seismology Network reported on the discovery at Turrialba Volcano of a small lava lake in the central area of the crater.

The small sized lake was found by a team of the National Seismology Network (RSN) and the National Laboratory of Materials and Structural Models (Lanamme) through the use of a drone; it has a diameter of close to 50 meters.

According to Dr. Mauricio Mora “This is part of the normal process of the Turrialba Volcano, which has been accumulating in the past few years. For a while now we suspected that there was ascending magma”.

Mora explains that it is impossible to know whether the lake will extend more or will disappear soon. The Turrialba Volcano has liberated small eruptions of magmatic origin through this lake, which sometimes reach the surrounding area of the active crater, and explains why at night sometimes you can see a red gleam; it is also evidence of magmatic material rising to the surface.

The RSN explains that small lava lakes are usually smaller and they don’t last long. There are some volcanoes in the world however that have lava lakes that have persisted for years, among them the Erta Ale in Ethiopia, Mount Erebus in Antarctica, Kilauea in Hawaii, Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ambrym in the Island in Vanuatu; in the last few years the Masaya volcano in Nicaragua has had intermittent lava lakes.

In Costa Rica the most recent case was the Arenal Volcano which was active from 1984 to 2010.

In the last 24 hours the Turrialba Volcano continues to show a constant column of gases and at night time intense light and gleam can be seen in the west crater through the camera.

On the other hand, the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (OVSICORI) posted the following video that shows the magnificence of the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste, some of its history and past and current activity.

In the last 24 hours only one small eruption was registered at 8:49 this morning and it wasn’t strong enough to take any material out of the crater.