Lake · El Salvador
Lake Ilopango
Lake Ilopango is a crater lake in the middle of El Salvador, just east of the capital, San Salvador. It fills a giant hollow left behind by a volcano and is the largest natural lake in the country.
Picture credit: randreu (CC BY 3.0) · randreu (CC BY 3.0) · randreu (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Lake Ilopango?
Countries on its shores: El Salvador.
Largest lake of: El Salvador.
Middle of the lake: 13.67° N, 89.05° W
The story behind it
Lake Ilopango lies in a caldera, a giant bowl that forms when a volcano collapses after huge eruptions. The bowl measures about 8 by 11 kilometres, and its steep rim is 100 to 500 metres high. The lake is up to 230 metres deep. Sometime between the years 410 and 535, the volcano had one of its biggest eruptions. Clouds of hot ash and rock swept over the land and destroyed Maya cities. The volcano erupted again from 31 December 1879 to March 1880. A dome of lava pushed up through the water and formed small islands called the Islas Quemadas, which means 'burnt islands'. In 1928 the water rose and damaged many houses on the shore. Today divers explore the underwater rocks near the Cerros Quemados. El Salvador also has a large reservoir behind the Cerrón Grande Dam, but Ilopango is the country's largest natural lake.
Find it on the globe
Lake Ilopango is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big is Lake Ilopango?
Lake Ilopango covers about 72 km²; some sources give 70.5 km². It is up to 230 metres deep and lies about 440 metres above the sea.
How did the lake form?
The lake fills a caldera, a huge hollow that was left behind after several big eruptions of the Ilopango volcano. It probably formed after the last great eruption, which happened sometime between the years 410 and 535.
Where do the Islas Quemadas come from?
During an eruption from 1879 to 1880, a dome of hot lava grew up from the bottom of the lake. When it reached the surface, it formed these small islands.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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