Costa Rica’s Arenal Volcano acts up for the second time in five days.

One of Costa Rica’s most popular tourist destinations, the Arenal Volcano, puts on an incredible, natural light show almost every night. It’s a spectacular sight to see molten lava pour out of Arenal’s pointed mouth, but as area experts and park rangers know, the volcano is not always friendly, and it is therefore monitored carefully. As if to prove its power, on Tuesday (June 10), Volcán Arenal threw flaming rocks down its edges, causing a stir for the second time in five days.

“It was something we had foreseen,” volcanologist and Arenal expert, Eliécer Duarte, said. “There had been an accumulation of large rocks and materials at the summit, and it was going to collapse any minute.”

According to Duarte, yesterday’s rock avalanche was very similar to Friday’s, and the falling rocks followed the same path as before. In addition to tumbling boulders, however, a spewing volcano also throws out noxious gases, which can be more dangerous to nearby park visitors than anything else. Aware of the impending activity, park rangers had already evacuated the areas closest to the volcano.

Duarte has assured tourists and residents that this latest activity falls well within the volcano’s normal activity parameters, charted over the volcano’s last 40 years. Though the unstable material will continue to fall — creating ideal viewing conditions for visiting tourists — experts say that there is no danger of a major eruption/explosion.

Pilot Federico Chavarría Kopper, in search of active volcano photos, was a firsthand witness to Arenal’s latest rumblings. He had planned to circle the volcano at its most active, but the ash and dust proved too much to allow close-up flying. Instead, he navigated one of the volcano’s sides, and was successful in capturing the falling lava, as well as the incandescent gas cloud.

Of course, Arenal is not always so docile, and as a very active volcano, it has a long and , at times, sad history. Most famously, on July 29, 1968, it erupted for the first time in about 400 years, violently ravaging nearby towns, affecting more than 230 square kilometers (89 square miles) around it. At its most furious, the volcano spat out boulders that traveled for up to a mile, flying at an amazing 600 meters/second. Several days later, three new, active craters had formed, 87 people were dead, 15 square kilometers were covered in rock and lava, and even more land was destroyed.

Thankfully, since that day, Arenal has stayed relatively calm, requiring only short evacuations for safety reasons, like yesterday’s brief warning window. Again, experts assure that Arenal is in no danger of a major, life-threatening eruption, and that tourism will continue as usual. Indeed, as most of the area’s hotels are located at a very safe distance from the volcano’s base, now might be the perfect time for some prime Arenal tumbling-lava viewing.

Photo courtesy of La Nacion.

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Filed under: Travel on June 11th, 2008