Lake of Ilopango
Lake Ilopango is a lake of volcanic origin in El Salvador. It measures 8 x 11 km, has an area of 72 km² and a depth of 230 m.1 It is located at an altitude of 440 msnm 16 km from the city of San Salvador, between the departments of San Salvador, Cuscatlán and La Paz. It is the largest natural lake in El Salvador. Its waters with abundant fishing mojarras, guapotes and juilines and suitable for sailing or motor boats.
The caldera of Ilopango was formed as a result of a cataclysmic eruption in the sixth century AD. C., 2 producing enormous pyroclastic flows that destroyed different Mayan cities. This eruption produced approximately 25 km³ of tefra (twenty times more than the eruption of Mount St. Helena in 1980), and has a value of 6 in the volcanic explosivity index.3
More recent studies suggest that the eruption was even larger, dating to 535 d. C. and placing the expulsion of tephra in about 84 km³. These new data even suggest that this eruption was the cause of climate change in 535 and 536, which, coupled with direct deaths and other effects around the world, could be considered the largest volcanic catastrophe in The history of humanity.4
Later eruptions formed different domes of lava in the lake and on its banks. The only historical eruption occurred in 1879-1880 and produced a lava dome within the lake, forming the "Quemados Islands".
By the end of 1789 tremors were felt in the region and in January 1880 the level of the lake rose considerably, there were ruins in the immediate hamlets and great collapses and cracks everywhere.
In this lake, on July 5, 1970, the illusionist Francis Fanci was immersed in a trunk from which he left after 30 seconds.6 On the other hand, in 2004 Mattew Hatfield Knight, the eldest son of the owner of the international consortium of sports shoes Nike , Died of a heart attack while diving.
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