The Poás Volcano, one of Costa Rica’s tourist attractions, remained on orange alert this Monday due to an increase in gases emanating from its crater, indicating a higher eruptive potential. The 2,708-meter-high giant, surrounded by dense forest and located 50 km by road from San José, increased its activity on March 1, prompting authorities to restrict visits without fully suspending them.
“We have a lot of information indicating that there is an influx of fluids from deep within. We don’t know what will happen, but it’s an influx that creates a concerning situation,” said Geoffroy Avard, a French volcanologist from the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Ovsicori).
“At this moment, [Poás] is at level three [orange alert], which we call ‘caution.’ It’s level three out of four levels, and that’s because the volcano shows many aspects that cause us significant concern,” he added. According to the National Seismological Network, Costa Rica is a country with more than 120 volcanic sites, but most are extinct, with only five remaining active: Poás, Rincón de la Vieja, Arenal, Irazú, and Turrialba.
“The volcano [Poás] is very unstable right now, and the nature of the gases suggests it’s magma,” the Ovsicori expert further noted. Visits to the volcano were suspended from April 2017 to August 2018 due to eruptions. They resumed with enhanced safety measures, including shelters and protective equipment for visitors.
“The most significant explosion we’ve had in the last decade or so was the eruption of 2017, particularly on April 22 […]. Rocks were flung a kilometer and a half,” the volcanologist recalled. The suspension of visits had a strong economic impact on nearby communities, whose livelihoods depend on tourism.
