Lake Ilopango

Infobox Mountain
Name = Lake Ilopango
Photo = Lgo Ilopango Stgo Txacngs.jpg
Caption = Lake Ilopango seen from Santiago Texacuangos
Elevation = Convert|450|m|ft|0|abbr=on
Location = El Salvador
Range =
Prominence =
Coordinates = coord|13.67|N|89.05|W|region:SV_type:mountain
Topographic

Type = Caldera
Age =
Last eruption= 1880
First ascent =
Easiest route=Infobox lake
lake_name = Lake Ilopango
image_lake =
caption_lake =
image_bathymetry =
caption_bathymetry =
location = Central El Salvador
coords = coord|13.67|N|89.05|W|region:SV_type:waterbody|display=inline,title
type = crater lake
inflow =
outflow =
catchment =
basin_countries = El Salvador
length = convert|11|km|mi|abbr=on
width = convert|8|km|mi|abbr=on
area = convert|72|km2|sqmi|abbr=on
depth =
max-depth = convert|230|m|ft|abbr=on
volume =
residence_time =
shore =
elevation = convert|440|m|ft|abbr=on
islands = Islas Quemadas
cities =

Lake Ilopango is a crater lake which fills a scenic 8 x 11 km volcanic caldera in central El Salvador. It is the largest lake in the country and is located immediately east of the capital city, San Salvador. The caldera formed during a cataclysmic eruption in the 3rd century AD, [cite book |title=Archeology and Volcanism in Central America |chapter=Tierra Blanca Joven tephra from the AD 260 eruption of Ilopango caldera |last=Hart |first=W. J. E. |authorlink= |coauthors=Steen-McIntyre, V. |editor=Sheets, P. D. (ed.) |year=1983 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin, TX |isbn=0292787081 |pages=14–34 ] which produced widespread pyroclastic flows and devastated Mayan cities. [cite journal |last=Dull |first=Robert A. |authorlink= |coauthors=Southon, John R.; Sheets, Payson |year=2001 |month= |title=Volcanism, Ecology and Culture: A Reassessment of the Volcan Ilopango Tbj eruption in the Southern Maya Realm |journal=Latin American Antiquity |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=25–44 |doi=10.2307/971755 |url= |accessdate= |quote= ] This eruption produced about convert|25|km3|cumi|abbr=on of tephra (20 times as much as the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens), thus rating a 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.

Later eruptions formed several lava domes within the lake and near its shore. The only historical eruption in 1879–80 produced a lava dome which reached the surface of the lake, forming the islets known as Islas Quemadas. [cite journal |last=Golombek |first=Matthew P. |authorlink= |coauthors=Carr, Michael J. |year=1978 |month= |title=Tidal triggering of seismic and volcanic phenomena during the 1879–1880 eruption of Islas Quemadas volcano in El Salvador, Central America |journal=Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research |volume=3 |issue=3–4 |pages=299–307 |doi=10.1016/0377-0273(78)90040-9 |url= |accessdate= |quote= ]

ee also

*List of volcanoes in El Salvador

References

External links

* [http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1403-06= Global Volcanism Program: Ilopango]