Volcán Platanar : The Island Farm Costa Rica

Toucano, Photo (c) 2004 Ingrid Greenwood

The Island Farm, Aguas Zarcas, AL, Costa Rica

Rainforest conservation and tropical wildlife preserve. Located between two rivers on the slopes of volcano Platanar. Reforestation project officially recognized by Cooperativa para el Desarrollo Forestal de San Carlos (CODEFORSA).

Volcán Platanar or Cerro Platanar

Three views of Platanar, from San Rafaeillo, Cuidad Quesada and Finca Isla.

Platanar, A Banana Plantation

The Platanar volcanic center is the NW-most volcano in the Cordillera Central of Costa Rica. The massive complex covers about 900 sq km and is dominated by two largely Pleistocene stratovolcanoes, Platanar and Porvenir. These volcanoes were constructed within the Pleistocene Chocosuela caldera, which may have formed during a major slope failure. The 2183-m-high Cerro Platanar volcano on the north side of the complex has prehistorical lava flows on its western flanks and is the youngest volcanic center. The highest peak of the complex is 2267-m-high Porvenir volcano, whose summit crater lies 3 km south of Platanar and contains a small cone within the crater. A thin layer of phreatic ash suggested that an eruption from Platanar occurred within the past few thousand years (Stine and Banks, 1991). The Aguas Zarcas group of nine basaltic cinder cones, located on the north flank (image above) of the Platanar-Porvenir complex to as low as 160 m altitude, is in part Holocene in age.

Holocene, the last 11,000 years starting at the end of the last ice age.

Topographic map of volcano Platanar

Summit Elevation	2,267m	7,438 ft.
Latitude	10.30°N	10°18'0"N
Longitude	84.336°W	84°21'57"W

Global Volcanism Program, Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History - Room E-421, MRC 0119, PO Box 37012, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20013-7012 : Photos by Jock Dempsey and Josh Greenwood, Map webmaster

Nearby Poás to the Southeast is one of Costa Rica's most active volcanoes and is currently (2004) producing steam from its crater lake. Elevation 2,708 meters (8,885 ft.), three craters on a North-South line. Recorded eruptions of Poas have occured in:

1996, 1994, 1992-93, 1992, 1991, 1991, 1987-90, 1981, 1980, 1979-80, 1978, 1977-78, 1977, 1976, 1974-75, 1972-73, 1970, 1969, 1967, 1964-65, 1963, 1958-61, 1952-57, 1948-51, 1946, 1941-46, 1929, 1925, 1914-15, 1914, 1910, 1910, 1907, 1898-91, 1880, 1879?, 1860, 1838, 1834, 1828.

Global Volcanism Program, Poás