The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, July, 22 2004

SETTING it up: Scientists install new equipment near Palo Verde National Park, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, that will use signals to create a three-dimensional image of the geological structure beneath Costa Rica. It is one of 20 seismic stations installed last week.
Photo courtesy of OVSICORI

July 22

Guadalupe Urbina and Los de la Bajura Dance Group
Vocalist and dance group will perform together to celebrate the Guanacaste Annexation, tonight at 7 p.m. in Liberia; Friday at 7 p.m. in Filadelfia; Saturday at 7 p.m. in Cañas; Sunday at 7 p.m. in Nicoya.

Score Music
Performance begins at 7 p.m., National Auditorium, Children’s Museum, end Calle 4, Av. 9 in San José. Info: 258-4929, ext. 125.

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Scientists Take Picture
Of Costa Rica’s Innards

Scientists are hoping to get a better understanding of Costa Rica’s volcanological condition by capturing a three-dimensional image of what lies beneath the country’s crust.

Forty-eight seismographs will be installed in Costa Rica and Nicaragua to illuminate the internal structure of the planet below these countries. Using the same technology used to look for brain tumors, the seismic stations will reveal variations in temperature and quantity of water in rocks. Analysis of the countries’ earthquakes will also be used in the study.

Scientists are hoping to learn more about why, how and where volcanoes are formed, said Geoff Abers, a professor of Boston University, which is collaborating on the project with Brown University, the Costa Rican Seismological and Volcanological Observatory (OVSICORI), and the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies.

Rock chemists have learned that the chemistry of volcanic rocks varies from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, Abers said.

“You see a global range of difference within a few kilometers,” he said. “What is not understood is why magma wants to form and come up … somehow the process of subduction is triggering volcanoes. Water trapped in the subducting crust heats up and triggers melting, but it is not understood if that is the main trigger or if some other process is at work.”

“It is pretty much a mystery,” he concluded.

Twenty seismic stations were installed last week. The seismographs will be monitored for a year and a half for the study.

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Plantains May Revive
Southern Zone Economy

With aid from the government, cooperatives in the Southern Zone are working to transform abandoned banana plantations into a profitable opportunity to export plantains to the United States and the European Union, according to president’s Economic Council.

By the end of next month, banana plantations 5, 6, 8, 11 and the Puntarenas farm in Palmar Sur, near the Inter-American Highway, are expected to begin producing export quality plantains that will be sold to fruit exporter Del Monte.

In all, 700 hectares (1,729 acres) will be planted to produce an estimated 870,000 crates of plantains a year. The project has a total cost of approximately ¢2.5 billion ($5.7 million) and is being funded through the government’s Productive Re-Conversion Program.

Del Monte and the National Production Council (CNP) recently signed an agreement under which the company agrees to buy all plantains produced in the farm during the next 10 years.

“This project is very important for the zone’s economy,” explained José Rafael Corrales, an engineer with CNP. “It helps insert the local population in an activity like exporting, which will create new opportunities.”

Surcoop R.L., the cooperative in charge of the project, expects the project will create an additional 200 direct jobs in the region, as well as 400 to 500 indirect ones.

“The idea is to create a plantain circuit that totals 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres),” said Franklin Obando, manager of Surcoop R.L. “In the near future, we hope to use Golfito to export fresh produce by boat. This would help reactivate the zone.”

Agriculture Minister Rodolfo Coto called the initiative “the most effective way to combat poverty” since it creates the necessary conditions for producers to compete.

Costa Rican plantain exports grew 30% in 2003 compared to 2002, totaling $8.07 million. The main export markets for Costa Rican plantains are the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and Puerto Rico, according to the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER).

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Moravia Residents Assist in
Detaining Robbery Suspect

Residents of Moravia, northeast of San José, yesterday pursued and helped detained a man armed with a knife who allegedly robbed a nearby supermarket, the Public Security Ministry announced.

The suspect, a Nicaraguan citizen identified by police as having the last name of Arichavala, fled on foot after the robbery, when residents forming part of a community security program saw him and chased him. A local police officer joined the pursuit and, with the help of the residents, detained Arichavala.

Ministry officials said Moravia residents in the past have provided police with information that proved vital in the arrest of suspects wanted for bank robbery and assault.

According to police, Arichavala had entered the country illegally and is not employed.

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Wednesday October 26, 2005