Can Poás Volcano continue with a constant and vigorous activity? It is difficult to answer, but scientists foresee two possible scenarios.
Eliécer Duarte, a volcanologist at the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI), explained that one of the only ways that eruptive activity continues to rise is if there is a duct open to the interior of the massif.
Positive scenario: if the duct is able to release the overpressure (material rise) that caused the eruptions, we would return to a fairly stable scenario.
Negative scenario: Existence of a clear conduit, with an opening, that could generate decompression (reduction of internal pressure). That is, the materials that are bidding on the bottom could reach the surface in the form of a dome or lava flows.
These eruptions are different from those from Turrialba. We have a large lake that has to be evacuated. This causes larger or different eruptions. The current ones, which are groundwater, contain a lot of the liquid in the lake and decomposed materials,”
said Duarte.
The eruptions from this volcano remained at discrete levels during Monday morning. However, it is still early to draw conclusions.
Mauricio Mora, a geologist with the National Seismological Network (RSN), explained that much of the dome was destroyed by eruptive activity,
there are only two remnants left on the east and west ends.”
The dome was a structure composed of lava expelled by the volcano during the eruptive cycle of 1953, which was up to 30 meters high.
Activity in Poás Volcano increased in early April. The most important eruption occurred on Friday at 7:00 a.m., with a column of gases and ash that rose more than three kilometers above the crater.