Panajachel GCA - Lago de Atitlan with Volcán Tolimán 06
Lake Atitlán (Spanish: Lago de Atitlán) is a lake in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountain range. It is in the Sololá Department of northern Guatemala. "Atitlan" means "at the water" in Nahuatl.
Lake Atitlán is the deepest lake in Central America with a maximum depth of about 340 metres. It is approximately 12 x 5 km with around 20 km3 of water. Atitlán is technically an endorheic lake, as it does not drain into the ocean, but substantial seepage feeds two nearby rivers. It is shaped by deep surrounding escarpments and three volcanoes on its southern flank. The lake basin is volcanic in origin, filling an enormous caldera formed by an eruption 84,000 years ago. The culture of the towns and villages surrounding Lake Atitlán is influenced by the Maya people. The lake is about 50 kilometres west-northwest of Antigua; it should not be confused with the smaller Lake Amatitlán.
Lake Atitlán is renowned as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world; German explorer Alexander von Humboldt is the earliest prominent foreigner to be quoted as calling it "the most beautiful lake in the world," and Aldous Huxley famously wrote of it: "Lake Como, it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing."
The first volcanic activity in the region occurred about 11 million years ago, and since then has seen four separate episodes of volcanic growth and caldera collapse, the most recent of which began about 1.8 million years ago and culminated in the formation of the present caldera. The lake now fills a large part of the caldera, reaching depths of up to 600 metres.
The caldera-forming eruption is known as Los Chocoyos eruption and ejected up to 300 km3 of tephra. The enormous eruption dispersed ash over an area of some 6 million km²: it has been detected from Florida to Ecuador, and can be used as a stratigraphic marker in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans (known as Y-8 ash in marine deposits). A chocoyo is a type of bird which is often found nesting in the relatively soft ash layer.
Since the end of Los Chocoyos, continuing volcanic activity has built three volcanoes in the caldera. Volcán Atitlán lies on the southern rim of the caldera, while Volcán San Pedro and Volcán Tolimán lie within the caldera. San Pedro is the oldest of the three and seems to have stopped erupting about 40,000 years ago. Tolimán began growing after San Pedro stopped erupting, and probably remains active, although it has not erupted in historic times. Atitlán has developed almost entirely in the last 10,000 years and remains active, with its most recent eruption having occurred in 1853.
On February 4, 1976, a massive earthquake (magnitude 7.5) struck Guatemala, killing more than 26,000 people. The earthquake fractured the lake bed and caused subsurface drainage from the lake, allowing the water level to drop two meters within one month.
Panajachel GCA - Lago de Atitlan with Volcán Tolimán 06
Lake Atitlán (Spanish: Lago de Atitlán) is a lake in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountain range. It is in the Sololá Department of northern Guatemala. "Atitlan" means "at the water" in Nahuatl.
Lake Atitlán is the deepest lake in Central America with a maximum depth of about 340 metres. It is approximately 12 x 5 km with around 20 km3 of water. Atitlán is technically an endorheic lake, as it does not drain into the ocean, but substantial seepage feeds two nearby rivers. It is shaped by deep surrounding escarpments and three volcanoes on its southern flank. The lake basin is volcanic in origin, filling an enormous caldera formed by an eruption 84,000 years ago. The culture of the towns and villages surrounding Lake Atitlán is influenced by the Maya people. The lake is about 50 kilometres west-northwest of Antigua; it should not be confused with the smaller Lake Amatitlán.
Lake Atitlán is renowned as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world; German explorer Alexander von Humboldt is the earliest prominent foreigner to be quoted as calling it "the most beautiful lake in the world," and Aldous Huxley famously wrote of it: "Lake Como, it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing."
The first volcanic activity in the region occurred about 11 million years ago, and since then has seen four separate episodes of volcanic growth and caldera collapse, the most recent of which began about 1.8 million years ago and culminated in the formation of the present caldera. The lake now fills a large part of the caldera, reaching depths of up to 600 metres.
The caldera-forming eruption is known as Los Chocoyos eruption and ejected up to 300 km3 of tephra. The enormous eruption dispersed ash over an area of some 6 million km²: it has been detected from Florida to Ecuador, and can be used as a stratigraphic marker in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans (known as Y-8 ash in marine deposits). A chocoyo is a type of bird which is often found nesting in the relatively soft ash layer.
Since the end of Los Chocoyos, continuing volcanic activity has built three volcanoes in the caldera. Volcán Atitlán lies on the southern rim of the caldera, while Volcán San Pedro and Volcán Tolimán lie within the caldera. San Pedro is the oldest of the three and seems to have stopped erupting about 40,000 years ago. Tolimán began growing after San Pedro stopped erupting, and probably remains active, although it has not erupted in historic times. Atitlán has developed almost entirely in the last 10,000 years and remains active, with its most recent eruption having occurred in 1853.
On February 4, 1976, a massive earthquake (magnitude 7.5) struck Guatemala, killing more than 26,000 people. The earthquake fractured the lake bed and caused subsurface drainage from the lake, allowing the water level to drop two meters within one month.