Volcano Time!

               There are three fault types of plate tectonics, but there is only two fault types boundaries in Nicaragua.  A convergent boundary and a transform boundary.  Convergent boundaries don't slide against each other, or pull away from each other.  They collide.  And transform boundaries slide across each other.This is why Nicaragua has so many volcanoes, mountains and earthquakes.  Nicaragua is actually the one country in the word with the most volcanoes.  There are 19 volcanoes in Nicaragua (and lots of earthquakes too!) , all along the Pacific Coast.   Weird huh? This is because of the Cocos Plate and the Caribbean Plate pushing and sliding against each other forming these volcanoes.

               Nicaragua is on the Ring of Fire.  It is a "ring" of volcanoes that stretches around the edge of the Pacific plate.  There is also a lot of earthquake activity on the Ring of Fire.  Where I am in Nicaragua is practically on the Ring of Fire.  I, thankfully, haven't had any earthquakes here.  Nor has there been any eruptions. There is, however, 2 active volcanoes.

               A couple of days ago I visited the volcanic tourist attraction, Volcan Mombacho.  Mombacho is dormant, and it's last eruption was in 1570, but that doesn't mean it couldn't make an appearance in 2014.  My family, my mom's friend, and our driver/guide took us up the volcano and we walked around the rim of one of the 4 craters.  Mombacho is a stratovolcano.  This means that is has been built up with layers upon layers of magma and ash.  We yelled across the crater to hear our echoes.  It was really cool to hear our voices on the whole other side of the volcano, like someone was repeating what we had just said all the way across the volcano.  As we were walking, we saw fumaroles.  Fumaroles are vents that emit volcanic gases including: Carbon Dioxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Hydrochloric Acid, Hydrogen Sulfide, and Steam.  These fumaroles are a result of an active magma chambers.  These fumaroles were the coolest part of the volcano.  Other than the amazing panoramic view!

               Laguna de Apoyo (Lake Apoyo) is a really cool lake where an extinct volcano blew up 23,000 years ago, creating a huge 6 kilometer (3.7 feet) long crater.  Eventually rain and subterranean waters filled it up.  There are six species of native cichlid fish in this lake.  You will only find them in a couple of other volcanic crater lakes in the area.  This lake also has (volcanic) pumice stones.  They float!!!  They are really light compared to regular rocks.  When I threw one into the water, I expected it to sink(like a normal rock).  It didn't, it was floating.  I also expected pumice to be black.  but they are almost pure white!  The bottom of the lake was really rocky (lots of pebbles), but if you dug your hands past those pebbles, it was really warm.   Laguna de Apoyo is located in between Masaya and Granada.  The road to get there is really long and all up hill.  It took approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes to get there from our house.  It was a long day, but the beautiful view and experience was worth it. 

Floating rocks in Laguna de Apoyo.