San Jose, Costa Rica

July 23, 2001

Costarica

Provided by: NASA/JPL/NIMA (SRTM Mission)
Summary authors & editors: NASA/JPL/NIMA (SRTM Mission)

This perspective view shows the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica, in the right center of the image (gray area). Rising behind it are the volcanoes Irazu, 3402 meters high (11,161 feet) and Turrialba, 3330 meters high (10925 feet.) Irazu is the highest volcano in Costa Rica and is located in the Irazu Volcano National Park, established in 1955. There have been at least 23 eruptions of Irazu since 1723, the most recent during 1963 to 1965. This activity sent tephra and secondary mudflows into cultivated areas, caused at least 40 deaths, and destroyed 400 houses and some factories. This image was generated in support of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development through an agreement with NASA. The Commission involves eight nations working to develop the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, an effort to study and preserve some of the most biologically diverse regions of the planet.

This three-dimensional perspective view was generated using topographic data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and an enhanced false-color Landsat 7 satellite image. Colors are from Landsat bands 5, 4, and 2 as red, green and blue, respectively. Topographic expression is exaggerated 2X.

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