A small explosion to place on Mount Telica in northwest Nicaragua at about 6.50 am local time (about 12.50 pm GMT) on Wednesday 25 September 2013, producing an ash column approximately 1.5 km in height. There has been no further activity on the volcano, but local authorities are monitoring the situation closely. This is the first eruption on Telica this year, however it has undergone bouts of eruptive behavior several times over the last few years, and a number of Earhquake swarms this year have suggested that further eruptions were likely.
A small eruption on Mount Telica in November 1976. Jamie Incer/Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program.
Nicaragua is located on the southern edge of the Caribbean Plate, which underlies Central America as well as the Caribbean Sea. To the south the Cocos Plate, which underlies part of the eastern Pacific, is being subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate along the Middle American Trench, passing under Central America as it is sinks into the Earth. As it is subducted the Cocos Plate is being partially melted by the heat of the planet's interior and the friction caused by its dragging under the Caribbean Plate, producing liquid magma, which then rises through the overlying plate fueling the volcanoes of Central America.
The approximate location of Mount Telica. Google Maps.
See also Seismic activity on Mount Momotombo in western Nicaragua, Seismic activity beneath Apoyeque and Eruption on San Cristobal, Nicaragua.
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