Arenal Volcano’s Cone Rising Above the Rainforest

Arenal Volcano stands 1,657 meters tall in north-central Costa Rica, within Arenal Volcano National Park near the town of La Fortuna. A stratovolcano formed by the collision of the Cocos and Caribbean tectonic plates, it lay dormant for centuries before a sudden eruption in 1968 destroyed the nearby villages of Tabacón and Pueblo Nuevo. Arenal remained active for more than four decades, with lava flows and ash visible from La Fortuna, before entering its current quiet phase in 2010. The surrounding slopes, now covered in regrown forest, form part of the Arenal-Monteverde biological corridor connecting several protected reserves.

Taken February 2019