Sit'in On Top of the World Earthcache EarthCache
Sit'in On Top of the World Earthcache
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Costa Rica lies at the heart of one of the most active volcanic regions on earth. The beauty of the Costa Rican landscape has been enhanced by volcanic cones--part of the Pacific Rim of Fire--that march the length of Central America.
Costa Rica has seven of the isthmus's 42 active volcanoes, plus 60 dormant or extinct volcanoes. Some have the look classically associated with volcanoes--a graceful symmetrical cone rising to a single crater. Others are sprawling, much-weathered mountains whose once-noble summits collapsed into huge depressions, called calderas. Still others have smooth shield-shaped outlines with rounded tops pockmarked by tiny craters. This Earthcache will bring you to Paos Volcano; which has a water-filled crater called Lake Paos. This crater is approximately 1 mile in diameter. The lake water is hot & acidic, pH 1. Paos emits thick clouds of water vapor "cloud-making". The sight is spectacular.
Poás volcano is a powerful symbol of the geothermal forces that formed Costa Rica. Poas is a strato volcano that soars 2,708 meters above sea level. Besides the main crater, Botos Lake and the Von Frantzius cone, there are at least half a dozen piroclastic cones in the surrounding savannah woodland of Redonda and Bajos del Tigre. These cones are made of ash, lapilli, fusiform bombs and small lava flows. When the mist and clouds part you'll see the sulfuric, bubbling, green rain fed lake at the bottom, surrounded by smoke and steam rising from fumaroles. Water from the lake is constantly seeping through cracks in the hot rock, evaporating and building pockets of steam. When the pressure in these pockets exceeds the weight of the water above, the steam breaks through in geysers that rocket up to 820 feet (250 meters) high. Don't worry about getting a shower though; the crater is 1,050 feet (320 meters) deep. At almost a mile (1.6 km) across it's also the largest active crater in the world.
How do people log this Earthcache?:
At the main coordinates, To claim this cache, answer one of these questions:
1. Describe the fumarole. Why is it there?
2. What is the approximate height of the volcano at this location? (Use your GPS to determine the altitude at the top. ( Stand on the platform)
Finally upload a photo of your group at the site
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gur cnexvat pbbeqvangrf sbe n pne : A 10 11.121 J 084 14.191 Cnexvat Pbeqvangrf sbe n ohf be gbhevfg ina: A 10 11.116 J 084 14.181