Lake Managua

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
Any unsourced material that has been or is likely to be challenged may be removed at any time.
This article has been tagged since October 2006.

Lake Managua from space, January 1986. North is to the left.

Lake Managua (also known as Lake Xolotlán) (located at 12°20′N, 86°25′W) is a lake in Nicaragua. The (Spanish) name is Lago de Managua or Lago Xolotlán. It is approximately 65 kilometres (40 miles) long and 25 kilometres (15 miles) wide. Similarly to the name of Lake Nicaragua, its name was coined by the Spanish conquerors from "Mangue" (their name for the Mánkeme tribes) and agua ("water"). The city of Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, lies on its southwestern shore.

The lake has been severely polluted, in part by Kodak dumping mercury into the lake in the 1950s. Despite the pollution, some of the people of Managua still live along the lake's banks and eat the fish.

It rose 3 metres (10 feet) in five days during Hurricane Mitch in 1998, destroying the homes of many who lived on its edge.

It is also joined by the Tipitapa River to another lake, Lake Nicaragua; however, due to the extreme pollution, the bull sharks of Lake Nicaragua can't join Lake Managua.