Ilopango (mountain)

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Ilopango
The creation of the Islas Quemadas (1880)

The creation of the Islas Quemadas (1880)

height 442  m
location San Salvador ( El Salvador )
Coordinates 13 ° 40 ′ 0 ″  N , 89 ° 3 ′ 0 ″  W Coordinates: 13 ° 40 ′ 0 ″  N , 89 ° 3 ′ 0 ″  W
Ilopango (mountain) (El Salvador)
Ilopango (mountain)
Type Caldera
Last eruption 1880

The Ilopango is a volcano in El Salvador around 12 km east of San Salvador near the city of Ilopango . It consists of an extensive caldera , which today is still about 100 m high crater rims. Lake Ilopango, named after the volcano, is located in the caldera .

outbreak

The time of its major outbreak is still unclear, according to Hart and Virginia Steen-McIntyre (1983) in the period 260 (± 114 years), according to Robert J. Sharer (1994): 132-133. A new 14 C dating of the pyroclastic sediment (tephra) resulted in the year 429 AD.

During its massive eruption, 20 to 30 cubic kilometers of pyroclastic sediment (volcanic rock and ash) - about ten times the material released during the eruption of Mount St. Helens - were ejected, destroying the land within a radius of 100 km. Thousands of Maya people living in the highlands died in the eruption; the Maya village of Joya de Cerén was buried by rocks and ashes - the survivors probably fled to the lowlands of Guatemala and Belize .

In 1951 Howel Williams and Helmut Meyer-Abich referred to this great outbreak after the Tephra as Tierra Blanca Joven (TBJ, white young earth ). At least three earlier series of eruptions (TB2, TB3 and TB4 about 60,000 years ago) are believed to have formed the caldera.

Robert Dull, who dated the 2001 TBJ eruption to 430, now links it to the 535/536 weather anomaly . As proof of this thesis, Dull points to a layer of volcanic ash which, according to the latest research results, was deposited around the Ilopango almost at the same time as the beginning of the above-mentioned anomaly. This dating could also explain the sinking of Teotihuacan in central Mexico in the 6th century . In 2019, Dull and co-authors published results of their dating of tree trunks found in the pyroclasts of the Ilopango, narrowing the eruption period to 500-540. During this time, only one signal of a tropical eruption in the year 540 is found in ice cores from Greenland and the Antarctic. This, according to the authors, is conclusive evidence that the climate anomaly about 540 originated from the eruption of the Ilopango.

Lake Ilopango

In the course of the following centuries, the 72 square kilometers large and up to 230 meters deep Ilopango Lake ( Lago de Ilopango ; also known as Lago de Apulo ) formed in the caldera that was created .

In the years 1879/80 a volcanic lava dome was built there - the small island Islas Quemadas ( burned islands ) with a height of approx. 46 meters and a diameter of 152 meters. In 1928 the water rose and destroyed many houses along the lake shore.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William J. Hart, Virginia Steen-McIntyre: Tierra Blanca tephra from the AD 260 eruption of Ilopango caldera . In: Payson D. Sheets: Archeology and Volcanism in Central America . University Press, Austin, Tx. 1983, ISBN 0-292-78708-1 , pp. 14-34.
  2. ^ Robert J. Sharer: The ancient Maya . University Press, Stanford, Calif. 1994, pp. 132-133, ISBN 0-8047-2130-0
  3. ^ Natural Hazards in El Salvador ; P. 57
  4. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fundar.org.sv
  5. ↑ Possible connection between the Ilopango eruption and the sinking of Teotihuacan ( Memento from May 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Robert A. Dull, John R. Southon, Steffen Kutterolf, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Armin Freundt, David B. Wahl, Payson Sheets, Paul Amaroli, Walter Hernandez, Michael C. Wiemann, Clive Oppenheimer: Radiocarbon and geologic evidence reveal Ilopango volcano as source of the colossal 'mystery' eruption of 539/40 CE . In: Quaternary Science Reviews . tape 222 , 2019, doi : 10.1016 / j.quascirev.2019.07.037 .

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