Los Ausoles is a group of

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

s located 20 kilometers north of

Ahuachapán Ahuachapán () is a city, and municipality, and the capital of the Ahuachapán Department in western El Salvador. The municipality, including the city, covers an area of 244.84 km² and as of 2007 has a population of 110,511 people. Situat ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. The area has been described as "the capital of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

n geothermal." Many of the springs in the area produce heavy

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

, and as of 1850, were described as "semi-fluid mass of mud and water in a state of

ebullition Boiling is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapour pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding atmosphere. Th ...

, continually throwing large heavy bubbles to the surfaces; this heated mass is in some black, in others red, or of the ochry colour." There are many hot springs in the area, however, there are five main springs: *El Zapote is a

crater Crater may refer to: Landforms *Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet *Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surfac ...

approximately 20 meters in diameter * Valdivieso is approximately 20 meters in diameter and comprises 4 different openings. It is known for its blue colored

sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

. *El Barreal comprises

mud A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

ponds. *La Labor is approximately 200 meters in diameter. It has seven openings with strong smells and noise, and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

and mud geysers. *El Salitre is a hot water

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

References

Ahuachapán Department Hot springs of North America Bodies of water of El Salvador Bodies of water of Central America {{hydrology-stub