Costa
Rica is one if the youngest sites of its kind (3 myr), with a unique geographic
history and tropical landscape, a broad range of both geological and geographic
activity, two coastlines (flanked by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the
Caribbean Sea to the East), and an incredible diversity of terrain, biota and
weather. As a part of the Central American volcanic front (a border between
volcanic and non-volcanic zones that often occurs in the trench side of an
island arc), Costa Rica was formed through the subduction of the Cocos tectonic
plate beneath the Caribbean plate at the Mid American Trench. This also created
its Nicoya Peninsula at the Pacific Rim, unique in its position directly above
the seismogenic zone of a subducting megathrust. The study of geographic patterns will help project how Costa Rica’s landscape might
change over the next 1,000-1,000,000 years.
COSTA RICA 1,000 YEARS FROM NOW…
The rapid convergence rate (~9 cm/yr) of the Cocos plate and the Caribbean plate is the cause of Costa Rica’s frequently occurring earthquakes (<M 7.0), as the land’s proximity to the subduction trench makes it particularly sensitive to vertical tectonic movements, as this map of Costa Rica's plate tectonics illustrates. |
COASTA RICA IN 10,000 YEARS FROM NOW…
Although a geologically young landform, Costa Rica’s dense volcanic population is in itself impressive, as the 100+ volcanic landscape is part of the Pacific Rim of Fire. These uplifted features range in shape from symmetrical cones rising to a single crater, sprawling mountains with collapsed calderas, stratovolcanoes like the Arenal Volcano on the left, and some lower shield-shaped outlines.
Violent eruptions created through deep crustal movement triggering
think and viscous magma to release, often results in the production of new
cones, some of the youngest being only 60 years old. Isotopic dating of
surrounding and erupted material has lead geophysicists to calculate Holocene
and Pleistocene uplift rates. Thus, leading us to expect that within 10,000 ears, Costa Rica’s 50,000 km²
landscape will be laden with new, active, juvenile volcanos and possibly,
additional craters, lakes or calderas where older volcanoes are today.
COSTA RICA 1,000,000 FROM NOW…
Offshore geophysical studies of
Costa Rica’s westward coast, have identified sharp variations in uplift
patterns coinciding with three distinct domains of subducting seafloor
segments, each originating from distinct oceanic spreading ridges and exhibit
contrasts in crustal thickness, surface roughness and heat flow. Since the
cycle of subduction zone convergence is a never ending process, and the preceding
findings indicating to be true in Costa Rica, in the next million years, can expect a global shift
northeastward , eventually towards modern day Florida, of the area we today call Costa
Rica, a vast increase in volcanic and seismic activity, as well as the addition of trenhes and ridges along its shoreline.COSTA RICA 1,000,000 FROM NOW…
Sources:
Key Concepts in Geomorphology
Climate Risk and Adaptation Country Profile
CentralAmerica.com
Earth 100 Million Years From Now
USGS Volcanic Map if Costa Rica