Crater Lake is formed from the caldera of Mount Mazama. Part of the Cascades volcanic chain, Mount Mazama sits between the Three Sisters volcanoes to the north and Mount Shasta to the south. The catastrophic eruption of Mount Mazama that occurred approximately 7,700 years ago destroyed the volcano while simultaneously forming the basin for Crater Lake. Eruptive activity continued in the region for perhaps a few hundred years after the major eruption. Evidence of this activity lingers in volcanic rocks, lava flows, and domes beneath the lake surface; the small cone of Wizard Island is the only visible portion of these younger rocks. Although considered a dormant volcano, Crater Lake is part of the United States Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory seismic monitoring network.
Published Sep 18, 2006
Though located a world away, Lake Salda, Turkey, shares similar mineralogy as Jezero Crater on Mars.
Published Jul 30, 2020
Crater Lake, a volcanic caldera in South Central Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, boasts breathtaking scenery, created about 7,700 years ago with the volcanic eruption and subsequent collapse of the summit of Mt. Mazama.
Published Jan 26, 2003
It one of the oldest parks in the United States, created in 1902 by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Published Jan 23, 2005
Elevation data show the distinct topography of Mount Mazama and the crater lake that fills its caldera.
Published Jul 29, 2019
Straddling Austria and Hungary, the lake is also known as the “Sea of the Viennese.”
Published Apr 10, 2017
Russia’s Lake El’gygytgyn rests inside a 3.6-millon-year-old meteorite crater, and preserves the longest continuous climate record in the Arctic.
Published Dec 14, 2008
Some 400 million years ago, a meteor struck Earth in what is now Canada’s Northwest Territories. The 12.5-kilometer- (7.8-mile-) wide crater is now Nicholson Lake, one of many small lakes that dot the sub-arctic, glacier-scoured landscape.
Published Mar 23, 2008
Lake Jänisjärvi is a roughly oval-shaped lake, some 13 by 17 kilometers (8 by 11 miles) across, in northwestern Russia, near the Finnish border. The basin for this lake was formed hundreds of millions of years ago by a meteorite impact.
Published Apr 6, 2008
In the desert, a lake shows a long fight between water, wind, and climate.
Published Feb 20, 2012
The lake in west-central India promptly changed from green to pink, and the reason why remains a mystery.
Published Jun 19, 2020
Lake Teletskoye, one of Siberia’s prime tourist destinations, is a large lake that is nestled in a narrow valley between the snow-capped Al-tyntu (west, at top) and Korbu (east, at bottom) mountain ridges of the Altai Mountains. The lake is nearly 80 kilometers long by 5 kilometers wide and 325 meters deep; it is one of the deepest lakes in the world. But Lake Teletskoye is more than a large, deep lake. It is located within the 9,000 km² Altaisky Zapovednik nature reserve, which helps protect its unspoiled waters.
Published Oct 11, 2004
