Thieves at Turrialba Volcano Costa Rica
Equipment used for monitoring the most active volcano in Costa Rica has been stolen from the western side of the volcano officials of OVSICORI reported on Wednesday.
OVSICORI or the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica is worried that it will not be able to observe events as they unfold on the western slope of the very active Turrialba Volcano after thieves made off with much of the monitoring equipment from a GPS site in La Picada. The area had been evacuated previously when the volcano was erupting, and now the missing video equipment may not be replaced for several days.
Unfortunately, the Turrialba Volcano National Park only has two guards on duty, and they cannot be everywhere at once. Turrialba Volcano National Park is around 3,900 acres, so there is plenty of space for the guards to patrol leaving other areas unprotected. The thieves stole specialized equipment that has primarily been deemed as unprofitable.
The equipment stolen included a solar panel, a car battery, one Trimble NetR9 Global Navigation Satellite System and a Pelican brand case among other items. These items are believed to be worthless outside of for OVSICORI, and also might not be valuable in terms of a resale or for scrap.
The Turrialba Volcano has been the most active volcano in Costa Rica since about 2012, and it has shown a lot of activity in the last week alone by shutting down the Juan Santamaria International Airport from its eruption on May 4th, 2015. The monstrous volcano sent a plume of smoke and ash a mile into the sky which later covered much of the region.
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