 |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
LAND
OF ETERNAL SPRING The highlands reach temperatures of 30° Celsius. The summer wet months are from May to October. Winter has similar temperatures and is dry season with nights reaching temperatures of around 14°C. The climate is temperate and healthful and of an even spring like warmth with warm days and cool nights. Temperatures are quite constant all year except winter can have some of the hottest and coldest days of the year. The southern wind called Xocomil usually arrives in the late morning and the calm water becomes active with waves. As hot air from the pacific coast rises and cools large voluminous clouds are formed over the volcanoes. The average temperature of the lake water is 18 Celsius or 65 Fahrenheit.
GEOGRAPHY
In Nahuatl Guatemala
means land of many trees and Atitlan means “at the water”. The
Quiches of Momostenango call Lake Atitlan the lake of the south, one
of four sacred lakes that mark the four sides of their world.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Lake Atitlan is 11 miles in diameter, 95 square miles (130 square
kilometers) in surface area and over 1000 feet deep. It is framed by
volcanoes and escarpments. The lake is approximatly 5,128 feet
(1,563) meters above sea level. The Sierra Madre mountain ranges run
parallel to the Pacific Coast and are traversed by valleys and
tablelands. The Lake basin is a caldera formed by a large collapse
of the central part of a volcano and by huge explosions, the first
of which is estimated to have occurred 14 million years ago, the
second 9 million years ago, the third approximately 85,000 years
ago, which produced the lake as we know it today. Volcanic ash
traveled as far as Florida and Ecuador. San Pedro volcano emerged
25,000 years later, then Toliman and Atitlan in the caldera. The
lake is fed by several small rivers and has no surface outlets.
Underground fissures and seep holes allow water to filter to two
rivers which drain into the Pacific Ocean near San Lucas Toliman
along the southern side. There are some hot water springs. Depending
on this activity and rainfall the lake has extremely varying heights.
Guatemala has 37 Volcanoes while a few are active most are extinct
or dormant. Lake Atitlan is rimmed by Atitlan volcano which reaches
3,537 meters and last erupted in 1853, Toliman at 3,158 meters and
is inactive and San Pedro which is 3,020 meters and also inactive.
The lake level rises and falls metres over various time intervals.
Evidence of human settlements has been found 25 meters under the
lake.