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The Observatory on Seismology and Volcanology of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: OVSICORI) of the National University is monitoring a new earthquake cluster in the province of Cartago, not far from the Irazu volcano. According to an update by the OVSICORI geologists, more than 400 seismic disturbances ranging between one and three degrees on the moment magnitude scale have been detected over the last 14 hours in this cluster.
Costa Rica is known as a seismic country, but detecting more than 100 earthquakes on any given day is not very common.
The epicenter of these quakes, which have not stopped since before midnight on Friday, is in the vicinity of San Juan de Chicua, a farming community located about five kilometers to the northwest of the Irazu volcano, a major tourist attraction that has been subject to closures in the last several months due to ongoing landslides. The depth of these temblors ranges from one to five kilometers.
Neighbors of communities such as Cot, Llano Grande and Pacayas, which are located in northern Cartago, felt numerous quakes that did not allow them to sleep through the night. A resident of San Juan, who was interviewed by national news radio station Columbia 98.7 FM, explained that:
We felt two strong earthquakes about fifteen minutes after midnight. Later we felt smaller temblors, one after the other. You can first hear this sound coming from below right before the quake hits. Other times, the earth simply moves a bit and we don’t really feel it unless we hear the roof creaking above us. They’re still happening
In the past, the OVSICORI has detected earthquake clusters near the Irazu colossus, which is a sister volcano to the Turrialba, but none of them have presented this high grade of activity. Earth scientists at both the OVSICORI and the National Seismology Network of the University of Costa Rica are trying to determine if this cluster has any relation to the volcanic activity from the Irazu, but residents in nearby communities explain that they have not felt the vibration typically associated with volcanic temblors.
Courtesy of news.co.cr
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