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SAN JOSE, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Costa Rica's Turrialba Volcano registered three minor eruptions early Monday, spewing incandescent rocks out of its crater, along with dense clouds of ash and gas.
"The Turrialba Volcano is releasing a lot of energy," said Geoffroy Avard, volcanologist of the national volcano and earthquake monitoring agency Ovsicori, according to the daily La Nacion.
The first eruption occurred in the wee hours, and was closely followed by two stronger eruptions that saw columns of ash spewing 1 km high.
The incandescent rocks were ejected from the crater three days after Ovsicori were reportedly seen a "red glow" inside the mouth of the volcano.
Winds were expected to spread ash over communities in the west and northwest of the crater, including the capital of San Jose, located just 37 km from the volcano.
The volcano has become more active since the end of 2015, with plumes of smoke occasionally reaching 4,000 m high.
Authorities characterized the activity as normal, but maintain a no-go zone within a 5 km radius of the volcano.
