Scientists have figured out that magma triggered the eruption of the Irazu volcano in the 1960s. Magma rose 22 miles in just two months.
The 1963 Eruption of Costa Rica’s Irazu volcano has been re-examined by scientists. They have found something surprising and bit unsettling.
Their findings suggested that some eruptions may happen in a much shorter time than previously thought. Scientists used to think that the rise of magma from the earth’s surface takes thousands of years.
But they are surprised with what they have found now. Some volcanoes have the ability to recharge their magma supply in a manner of months to blow their tops relatively quickly. The findings were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
The short fuse of the 10,000-foot-tall, 200-square mile-wide Costa Rican volcano Irazu has been described in the paper by a pair of researchers from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
“There’s definitely already evidence for fast-rising magmas in smaller volcanoes, but our new observation was that even `full-grown’ large volcanoes can also operate very fast”, lead author Philipp Ruprecht said in a phone interview.
Icelandic volcanoes are directly connected to the earth’s mantle because of the location’s geology. Volcano in Costa Rica, according to the research, may have a direct connection to the mantle too, despite the fact of lying on a much thicker part.