If you’re planning a trip to Costa Rica, there’s a good chance you’ve typed one question into Google: is Arenal Volcano still active? It’s a fair question. Photos of Arenal Volcano show a near-perfect cone rising dramatically above the rainforest, and for decades that cone was famous for glowing red at night, spitting ash, and rumbling loud enough to hear from miles away. So is Arenal Volcano still active today, or has it gone quiet for good?
The short answer to “is Arenal Volcano still active”: yes, it’s still classified as an active volcano, but it is currently in a resting phase that has lasted since 2010. There’s no lava, no explosions, and no immediate danger — but geologically speaking, Arenal isn’t finished. In this guide, we’ll walk through the volcano’s history, its most famous eruptions, why it went quiet, and what “active” actually means for anyone visiting Arenal Volcano National Park today.
Before diving into whether Arenal Volcano is still active, it helps to know what it actually is. Arenal Volcano (Volcán Arenal) is a stratovolcano located in northern Costa Rica, in the Alajuela province, about 90 kilometers northwest of San José. Standing at roughly 1,657 to 1,670 meters (5,437 to 5,480 feet), it’s part of the Tilarán Mountain Range and sits at the heart of Arenal Volcano National Park, near the town of La Fortuna.
A stratovolcano is a steep, cone-shaped volcano built up over thousands of years by repeated layers of hardened lava, ash, and volcanic rock. That’s exactly what gives Arenal its iconic, symmetrical shape — often compared to Japan’s Mount Fuji. Scientists believe Arenal has existed for more than 7,000 years, though its most dramatic chapter didn’t begin until the 20th century.
Before 1968, most locals didn’t even think of Arenal as a volcano at all. It was covered in dense forest and had been dormant for so long that its true nature was essentially forgotten. That changed in a single, violent morning — and set the stage for the question travelers still ask today: is Arenal Volcano still active?
To understand whether Arenal Volcano is still active today, you have to start with the eruption that put it on the map. Long before anyone thought to ask whether Arenal Volcano is still active, the mountain gave its answer decisively. On July 29, 1968, Arenal erupted with almost no warning. A series of powerful explosions sent pyroclastic flows — fast-moving currents of hot gas and volcanic debris — down the western slope of the mountain.
The eruption destroyed the small villages of Tabacón and Pueblo Nuevo and killed at least 78 people. It remains one of the deadliest volcanic disasters in Costa Rica’s history. The explosion also opened new craters on the volcano’s western flank, and it was this event that transformed Arenal from a forgotten, forest-covered peak into one of the most closely watched volcanoes in the world.
From that point on, the question “is Arenal Volcano still active” had an unmistakable answer: yes, dramatically so.
What followed the 1968 eruption was one of the most sustained periods of volcanic activity anywhere on the planet. For more than 40 years, Arenal Volcano was almost continuously active, producing:
This near-constant activity is why Arenal became such a bucket-list destination in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Visitors would travel from around the world specifically to watch the volcano’s nighttime lava displays from viewpoints and hot spring resorts nearby. During this era, no one needed to ask whether Arenal Volcano was still active — it was one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, alongside places like Stromboli in Italy, which Arenal is sometimes compared to due to similar explosive, gas-rich magma.
Here’s where things shift. Arenal’s eruptive activity gradually declined through the 2000s, and by 2010, the lava flows and explosions stopped entirely. Since then, the volcano has been in what geologists call a resting or quiescent phase.
This is the most important distinction to understand: dormant does not mean extinct. Volcanologists still classify Arenal as an active volcano because:
So if you’re asking, “is Arenal Volcano still active or extinct,” the answer is clear: active, but resting. There’s a real difference between a volcano that could theoretically erupt again and one that has permanently lost its magma supply. Arenal falls firmly into the first category.
Anyone asking whether Arenal Volcano is still active today will find the answer just below the surface. If you visit Arenal Volcano National Park now, you won’t see lava or explosions. What you will notice is subtler evidence that the mountain is still geologically alive:
None of this poses a danger to visitors. Climbing to the summit has been prohibited for years regardless of activity level, both for safety and conservation reasons, but the marked trails through Arenal Volcano National Park — including the popular Las Coladas trail through the 1968 lava fields — remain open and are considered very safe for hikers of all levels.
Arenal Volcano National Park is actually home to two volcanoes, and it’s easy to confuse them. Arenal, the younger and more famous of the two, is the active stratovolcano this guide focuses on. Right next to it sits Cerro Chato, an older volcano that has been completely dormant for roughly 3,500 years and now holds a crater lake at its summit.
Cerro Chato shows no current volcanic activity and isn’t monitored the way Arenal is. When people ask “is Arenal Volcano still active” versus asking about Cerro Chato, they’re really asking two very different questions — Cerro Chato is essentially considered extinct, while Arenal remains classified as active.
This is one of the most common follow-up questions once travelers learn Arenal Volcano is still active in the geological sense — and it’s a fair one to ask before booking a trip. The honest answer is that no one can predict exactly when Arenal Volcano will erupt again. Volcanologists can’t offer a firm timeline for any active volcano, and Arenal is no exception.
What monitoring agencies can do is track warning signs — seismic activity, gas emissions, ground deformation — that typically precede an eruption by weeks or months. Currently, none of those warning signs are present. Arenal has shown no indication of returning to an eruptive phase, and its resting period has now lasted well over a decade with no significant change. That’s part of why it remains completely safe to visit and explore.
Yes. Even though Arenal Volcano is still active in the scientific sense, Arenal National Park is one of the most visited and safest natural attractions in Costa Rica. Costa Rica’s National Seismological Network monitors the volcano around the clock, and any changes in activity would be detected and communicated well before posing a risk to visitors.
Millions of travelers have safely hiked its trails, soaked in its geothermal hot springs, and photographed its cone-shaped silhouette since the 2010 quiet period began — proof that a destination can be genuinely safe even while the answer to “is Arenal Volcano still active” is yes. The park entrance fee, trail access, and guided tour options are all still fully operational, and local guides — many of whom grew up watching Arenal’s active decades firsthand — can offer real insight into both its explosive past and its current resting state.
Volcanologists don’t rely on visible lava alone to answer whether Arenal Volcano is still active. A volcano is generally classified as active if it has erupted within the last 10,000 years and still has the underlying conditions — a magma chamber, a connected conduit system, and ongoing geothermal signatures — that could produce another eruption.
Arenal checks every one of those boxes, which is the core reason volcanologists say Arenal Volcano is still active. Costa Rica’s Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (OVSICORI) and the Red Sismológica Nacional (RSN) continuously monitor Arenal using seismographs, gas sensors, and satellite imagery. These instruments track subtle shifts — small earthquakes, changes in gas composition, ground swelling — that would signal Arenal Volcano is becoming active again in the eruptive sense, rather than simply active in the geological classification sense.
This is an important distinction for anyone trying to understand current Arenal Volcano activity. “Active” in volcanology is a scientific classification based on eruptive history and ongoing internal processes, not a description of what’s happening on the surface right now. That’s precisely why the answer to “is Arenal still active” can be yes, even though nothing dramatic is happening visibly.
Before answering exactly why Arenal Volcano is still active despite years of silence, it helps to understand what happened in 2010. There isn’t one single, universally agreed-upon reason why Arenal’s eruptive activity slowed and eventually stopped that year. Volcanologists generally point to a gradual decline in magma supply and pressure within the system — the same forces that drove more than 40 years of near-continuous eruptions simply diminished over time.
This kind of extended resting phase isn’t unusual for stratovolcanoes. Many active volcanoes around the world cycle through decades or even centuries of eruptive activity followed by long periods of quiet. Mount St. Helens, Mount Etna, and Stromboli have all shown similar patterns of active eruptive windows followed by rest. Arenal’s current resting phase, which has now lasted over fifteen years, fits this pattern closely.
It’s worth noting that “resting” doesn’t mean the volcano has shut down internally — this is exactly why the answer to whether Arenal Volcano is still active remains yes. Below the surface, Arenal’s magma chamber is still believed to be intact, and the geothermal system that feeds the region’s famous hot springs draws directly on heat generated by that same volcanic plumbing. In other words, even during its quietest years, Arenal Volcano’s activity hasn’t disappeared — it’s simply moved underground and out of sight.
Long before anyone had reason to ask “is Arenal Volcano still active,” during its 1968–2010 eruptive period Arenal wasn’t just active — it was one of the most consistently active and observable volcanoes anywhere on Earth. Unlike many active volcanoes that erupt unpredictably or only after long dormant stretches, Arenal produced visible activity on a near-daily basis for over four decades.
This consistency made it a rare natural laboratory. Volcanologists from around the world traveled to study Arenal precisely because they could reliably observe explosive eruptions, lava flows, and pyroclastic activity without waiting years for a single event. Tourism grew alongside the science; by the 1990s, watching Arenal Volcano’s nighttime lava glow from a hotel terrace or hot spring pool had become one of the signature Costa Rica experiences, drawing comparisons to Stromboli in Italy, another volcano famous for frequent, observable eruptions.
That era is why so many travelers today still associate Arenal with active lava flows, even though the volcano has been quiet since 2010. It’s also why the question “is Arenal Volcano still active” comes up so often — the volcano’s reputation was built during its most dramatic years, and that image has stuck.
Even without lava, a visit to Arenal National Park offers plenty to see, and understanding whether Arenal Volcano is still active helps set the right expectations. Here’s what most visitors experience:
None of these experiences require the volcano to be erupting, even though Arenal Volcano is still active by every scientific measure. In fact, most visitors today are specifically drawn by the combination of dramatic geological history and present-day safety — they get to explore an active volcano’s landscape without any of the risk that came with visiting during its eruptive years.
Understanding Arenal’s volcanic history adds a whole new layer to visiting Arenal Volcano National Park — you’re not just looking at a pretty mountain, you’re standing beside one of the most studied and storied active volcanoes in Central America. Whether you’re hiking through the 1968 lava fields, soaking in geothermally heated hot springs, or simply admiring the view from La Fortuna, you’re experiencing the legacy of a volcano that, resting phase or not, is still very much alive beneath the surface. So next time someone asks, “is Arenal Volcano still active?” — you’ll know the full story behind the answer.
Is Arenal Volcano still active in 2026?Yes. Arenal is still classified as an active volcano, though it has been in a resting phase since 2010 with no lava flows or explosive eruptions.
When was Arenal Volcano’s last eruption?Arenal’s last significant eruptive activity occurred in 2010, marking the end of a 42-year period of near-continuous eruptions that began in 1968.
What caused the 1968 Arenal eruption?The 1968 eruption was caused by a sudden buildup of pressure from magma beneath a volcano long presumed dormant. It produced powerful explosions and pyroclastic flows that destroyed nearby villages.
Can Arenal Volcano erupt again?It’s possible. Arenal is still an active volcano with a functioning magma chamber, but there’s no way to predict exactly when — or if — it will erupt again. Currently, there are no warning signs of renewed activity.
Is it safe to hike near Arenal Volcano?Yes. The marked trails in Arenal Volcano National Park are considered safe and are monitored regularly. Climbing to the actual summit is prohibited, but lower trails through the rainforest and old lava fields remain open to visitors.
What is Arenal Volcano’s full eruption history?Arenal was long dormant until it erupted violently in 1968, then remained almost continuously active — producing lava flows, ash, and explosions — for 42 years until activity stopped in 2010. It has been in a resting phase ever since, though it remains classified as active.
With a passion for tropical wildlife and sustainable tourism, Emily brings the magic of Costa Rica directly to her readers. She spends her time exploring the hidden waterfalls, cloud forests, and diverse ecosystems surrounding La Fortuna. Emily’s mission is to share insider travel tips that help guests connect authentically with local culture and nature.
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