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http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/CraterLake/crater_lake_aerial.jpg

Image courtesy of USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory

 

World’s Best Known Caldera

 

Mount Mazama, a stratovolcano,  erupted 6,850 years ago causing a collapse of the mountain which in turn created what is know today as Crater Lake located in Oregon is a caldera and is also the deepest lake in North America.  This caldera is approximately 6 miles wide.  The catastrophic pyroclastic eruption of Mount Mazama released about 12 miles cube of magma on the surface. 

 

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/crater_lake.html
 

 

The eruption of Mount Mazama deposited a large amount of volcanic ash that covered six states and a good portion of Canada stretching from the Washington state line to Montana along the Canadian border.  Along with volcanic ash deposits, there was also a deposit of pumice stones over a wide area as well

 

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/crater_lake.html
 

 

The cinder cone located in Crater Lake named “Wizard Island”  is approximately 760 feet above the lake on the west side.  Wizard Island also contains a crater left by a more recent eruption that took place 4 to 500 years ago.  This eruption left a depression that measure 300 feet across and 90 feet in depth.

  

http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np-image.crla1081.html
 

 

As you can see, the lava from the latest eruption flowed to the west side of Wizard Island.  Developing more land coverage prior to the eruption.  In the wintertime, the depression at the top of Wizard Island fills with snow but beyond that, the surface is dry the rest of the year.  The Wizard Island volcano considered inactive has had no recent activity recorded. 

 

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/CraterLake/Images/CraterLake82_crater_lake_and_wizard_island_09-82_med.jpg    
courtesy of USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory
 

 

Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,932 feet deep (Double Deck p 6).  Other calderas around Crater Lake have formed over time prior to the eruption of Mount Mazama and the birth of Wizard Island.  All of these volcanos have produced a variety of rocks and minerals that surround Crater Lake.  Here is a diagram of the lay out of Crater Lake and sibling calderas.

 Erosional remnants of a pyroclastic flow

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/crater_lake.html

 

Walls of Crater Lake.

http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np-image.crla1082.html
 

  

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/CraterLake/Maps/map_geology_crater_lake_floor.html

Image courtesy of USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory