The Tenorio Volcano in Guanacaste, Costa Rica is classified as an dormant or inactive volcano; however, the area presents six seismic faults which generate seismic activity.

This year, however, the activity has been increasing, and since January 9 through date the area has been affected by an earthquake swarm that registered 505 events of different magnitude, the strongest ones registered were of 4.5 and 5.0.

The situation has raised the alert of scientists of the National Seismology Network who are working on finding out whether the earthquakes have any link to the movement of volcanic fluids such as magma.

Guillermo Alvarado Induni , volcanologists from the National Seismology Network explained that since his is a dormant volcano it becomes an investigation laboratory since at any given time it could show signs of activity; he also confirmed that the monitoring of the Tenorio Volcano has shown the presence of tremor (noise or vibration), but this is not a sign of magma movement inside the volcano since it could be related to geothermal flows, water or gases or a combination of both.

This earthquake swarm actually caused landslides in the National Park, material fell in the rivers and caused a Rio Celeste to change color, from its typical light blue or turquois color to brown, this happened twice during the month of January.

The Tenorio Volcano stands 1,916 meters high and is formed by three cones with several craters, its slopes have fumarole activity and hot springs.

Scientists will continue to monitor the activity in the Tenorio Volcano and study its behavior from previous years.