We present results from two observations (combined exposure of ～17 ks) of galaxy cluster A2218 using the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer on board the Chandra X-Ray Observatory that were taken on 1999 October 19. Using a Raymond-Smith single-temperature plasma model corrected for galactic absorption, we find a mean cluster temperature of kT = 6.9 +- 0.5 keV, metallicity of 0.20 +- 0.13 (errors are 90% CL), and a rest-frame luminosity in the 2-10 keV energy band of 6.2 x 10~(44) ergs s~(-1) within a 5.1′ aperture in a A cold dark matter cosmology (ACDM) with H_0 = 65 km s~(-1) Mpc~(-1). The brightness distribution within 4′.2 of the cluster center is well fitted by a simple spherical beta model with core radius of 66.4″ and β = 0.705. High-resolution Chandra data of the inner 2′ of the cluster show the X-ray brightness centroid displaced ～22″ from the dominant cD galaxy and the presence of azimuthally asymmetric temperature variations along the direction of the cluster mass elongation. X-ray and weak lensing mass estimates are in good agreement for the outer parts (r > 200 h~(-1)) of the cluster; however, in the core the observed temperature distribution cannot reconcile the X-ray and strong lensing mass estimates in any model in which the intracluster gas is in thermal hydrostatic equilibrium. Our X-ray data are consistent with a scenario in which A2218 is not in hydrostatic equilibrium because of recent merger activity that has produced significant nonthermal pressure in the core and substructure along the line of sight; each of these phenomena probably contributes to the difference between lensing and X-ray core mass estimates.
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