Lake Chichoj is located near the city of San Cristóbal Verapaz, in the department of Alta Verapaz, in Guatemala. It is 1 km (0.62 mi) long, 0.5 km (0.31 mi) wide, with an area of 0.5 km2 (0.19 sq mi), an average water volume of (4.8±0.1)×106 m3 [(1.7±0.04)×108 ft3], and a maximum depth of 32 m (105 ft).
Location and catchment Lake Chichoj is located in the municipality of San Cristóbal Verapaz, department of Alta Verapaz, in Guatemala. The catchment of lake has been designated as a Protected Area, in an attempt to protect the lake from environmental degradation. Water routing through the catchment is made complex by karstic groundwater flow. It is estimated that the catchment of the lake drains 21.0–23.5 km2 (8.1–9.1 sq mi). The lake in turn drains superficially to the Cahabón River, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean via Lake Izabal.
Legends surrounding the catastrophic formation of the lake According to a few oral traditions from San Cristóbal Verapaz, the lake would have formed catastrophically by ground collapse during an earthquake in the early 16th Century, soon after the arrival of the Dominican friars (around 1525 CE), engulfing a church and its surrounding Maya settlement. The cataclysm has been explained as a divine punishment imparted to the inhabitants of San Cristóbal Caccoh, following the expulsion of a Dominican friar and the refusal of the inhabitants to submit to the Christian faith. This tradition is echoed in a book published in 1648 CE by the Irish Dominican friar Thomas Gage: "The English-American, or a New Survey of the West Indies". Gage's book suffers many exaggerations, casting doubt on the validity of his testimony. However, an independent report by Spanish Dominicans also mentions the sudden formation of a lake near San Cristóbal, by cave collapse, during an earthquake in 1590 CE. The parochial church suffered little damage during that earthquake. The most serious report therefore suggests that the purported event would have taken place far enough from the city for the church not to be damaged, but still would have been large enough to be deemed to reported. The event did not affect the western part of the lake, which was already in existence since at least the 8th Century. Montero de Miranda wrote about the lake that by 1575 (UNAM, 1982: 223–248) it was a "very large, long and very deep lake".
Hydrology Lake surface temperatures fluctuate between 20 °C (68 °F) in winter, and 25 °C (77 °F) in summer. From 1979 to 2011 annual rainfall was 1,777 mm/a (70.0 in/year) at the lake, and 2,428 mm/a (95.6 in/year) at Cerro La Laguna, the highest part of the catchment. The residence time of water in the lake is therefore 35 ± 6 days assuming homogeneous water mixing. In actuality the lake is strongly stratified and dimictic, being composed of a highly turbid and poorly mineralized epilimnion, over a 5 °C cooler, highly mineralized hypolimnion. Most of the water therefore only restrict its circulation to the epilimnion, with an average residence time of 18 ± 3 days, assuming a constant mean depth of the termocline of 7 m (23 ft). The lake usually homogenizes in January or February, sometimes very rapidly. The lake is fed by several streams, most noticeably by the Paná River in the west, which is born from the junction of Chijuljá and Requenzal creeks. Other streams (Los Lavaderos, Chicojgual, Cerro Caj Coj) contribute very little to the lake water budget. Some springs feed the lake either directly near the shoreline (for example near Panconsul cave), or through the extensive marshlands that surround the lake. Lake Chichoj drains to Río El Desagüe, a tributary of the Cahabón River, which it joins after sinking into a cave for several hundreds of meters. Some of the sewage of San Cristál Verapaz is rerouted away from the lake and flows in a pipe through the marshlands before being emptied into Río El Desagüe, downstream of lake Chichoj. The lake results from the coalescence of at least three dolines, likely resulting from the dissolution of gypsum at depth. The occurrence of gypsum is evidenced by a cluster of sulfate-bearing springs that dot the active trace of the Chixoy Polochic fault, 2 km south of the lake in the chixoy river valley, where they form large travertine fans. Discharge at these springs is much larger than what their upslope catchments can provide. The catchment of Lake Chichój is the closest catchment susceptible to provide water to these springs, and it lies 400–700 m (1,300–2,300 ft) above the springs.
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