The crater lake of Ilamatepec (Santa Ana) volcano, El Salvador: insights into lake gas composition and implications for monitoring

We here present the first chemical characterization of the volcanic gas plume issuing from the Santa Ana crater lake, a hyper-acidic crater lake (pH of − 0.2 to 2.5) in north-western El Salvador. Our results, obtained during regular surveys in 2017 and 2018 using a Multi-GAS instrument, demonstrate a hydrous gas composition (H2O/SO2 ratios from 32 to 205) and SO2 as the main sulfur species (H2S/SO2 = 0.03–0.1). We also find that gas composition evolved during our investigated period, with the CO2/SO2 ratio decreasing by one order of magnitude from March 2017 (37.2 ± 9.7) to November 2018 (< 3). This compositional evolution toward more magmatic (SO2-rich) compositions is interpreted in the c…