Orosí Volcano in the context of Guanacaste National Park (Costa Rica)


Orosí Volcano in the context of Guanacaste National Park (Costa Rica)

⭐ Core Definition: Orosí Volcano

The Orosí Volcano, in Spanish the Volcán Orosí, is an inactive volcano in Costa Rica, situated in the Cordillera de Guanacaste near the border with Nicaragua. The area around the volcano is a popular tourist destination, especially for more ecologically minded tourists due to its biodiversity, including the Guanacaste National Park.

Volcán Orosí itself has a conical shape as viewed from the north or west, but its flanks are heavily eroded. The complex includes Orosí, Orosilito, Volcán Pedregal, and Cacao. The highest peak of the volcanic complex is 1,659-m-high Volcán Cacao, 5.5 km southeast of Orosí. Historical eruptions were reported from Orosí in 1844 and 1849, but even at the time of the first volcanological observations at the end of the 19th century, Orosí was overgrown with large trees, and the eruptions may actually have been from neighboring Rincón de la Vieja.

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👉 Orosí Volcano in the context of Guanacaste National Park (Costa Rica)

Guanacaste National Park, in Spanish Parque Nacional Guanacaste is a national park in northern Costa Rica. The park is part of the Area de Conservación Guanacaste World Heritage Site, and stretches from the slopes of the Orosí and Cacao volcanoes west to the Interamerican Highway where it is adjacent to the Santa Rosa National Park. It was created in 1989, partially due to the campaigning and fund-raising of Dr. Daniel Janzen to allow a corridor between the dry forest and rain forest areas which many species migrate between seasonally. The park covers an area of approximately 340 square kilometers, and includes 140 species of mammals, over 300 birds, 100 amphibians and reptiles, and over 10,000 species of insects that have been identified. It was this high density of bio-diversity that encouraged the Costa Rican government to protect this area. The Guanacaste National Park weaves the neighboring Santa Rosa National Park with the high altitude forests of the two volcanoes, Orosi and Cacao, and the rainforest of the Caribbean in the country's north.

The Tempisque River flows through the park's lowland areas. There are dry forests at lower elevations and cloud forests at higher elevations. There are several trails running through the park that offer up good hiking. The trail leading to the Orosi Volcano has pre-Columbian petroglyphs near the plain at El Pedregal.

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Orosí Volcano in the context of Central America Volcanic Arc

The Central American Volcanic Arc (often abbreviated to CAVA) is a chain of volcanoes which extends parallel to the Pacific coastline of the Central American Isthmus, from Mexico to Panama. This volcanic arc, which has a length of 1,100 kilometers (680 mi) is formed by an active subduction zone, with the Cocos plate subducting underneath the Caribbean plate, the North American plate and the Panama plate. Volcanic activity is recorded in the Central American region since the Permian. Numerous volcanoes are spread throughout various Central American countries; many have been active in the geologic past, varying in intensity of their activity according to different factors.

View the full Wikipedia page for Central America Volcanic Arc
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