CRATER LAKES

A crater lake is a lake that forms as a results of the volcanic crater. I believe the well-known crater lake is the lake named “Crater Lake” in Oregon, USA. However, here is a list of 45 Crater Lakes from around the World.

1. Blue Lake, South Australia (Australia)

Mount Gambier's Blue Lake, the old Pumping Station in the foreground. [ Photo by Diceman / public domain ]

The Blue Lake in Mount Gambier, South Australia is a large monomictic lake located in an extinct volcanic maar associated with the Mount Gambier maar complex. It is one of four crater lakes on Mount Gambier. Of the four lakes, only two remain, as the other two (Leg of Mutton and Brown) have dried up over the past 30 to 40 years as the water table has dropped. If the more recent date is correct, this could be the most recent volcanic eruption on the Australian mainland. Blue Lake is thought to be of an average depth 72 metres, but in places reaches 75 metres deep (250 feet). The crater rim measures 1200 metres (3937 feet) by 824 metres (2703 feet), however, the lake itself measures 1087 metres (3566 feet) by 657 metres (2155 feet). (based on a wikipediaarticle / cc by-sa)

2. Lake Nyos (Cameroon)

Lake Nyos is the most renowned of the numerous maars and basaltic cinder cones associated with the deeply dissected Mount Oku massif. [ Photo by Jack Lockwood, USGS / public domain ]

Lake Nyos is a crater lake in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, located about 200 miles (322 km) northwest of Yaoundé. Nyos is a deep lake high on the flank of an inactive volcano in the Oku volcanic plain along the Cameroon line of volcanic activity. A natural dam of volcanic rock contains the lake waters. The field consists of volcanic maars and basaltic scoria cones. Lake Nyos fills a roughly circular maar in the Oku Volcanic Field, an explosion crater caused when a lava flow interacted violently with groundwater. The maar is believed to have formed in an eruption about 400 years ago, and is 1,800 m (5,900 ft) across and 208 m (682 ft) deep. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)

3. Nazko Cone (Canada)

A small tree-covered volcano called Nazko Cone [ Photo by nass5518 / CC BY 2.0 ]

Nazko Cone is a small potentially active basaltic cinder cone in central British Columbia, Canada, located 75 km west of Quesnel and 150 kilometers southwest of Prince George. It is considered the easternmost volcano in the Anahim Volcanic Belt. The small tree-covered cone rises 120 m above the Chilcotin-Nechako Plateau and rests on glacial till. It was formed in three episodes of activity, the first of which took place during the Pleistocene interglacial stage about 340,000 years ago. The second stage produced a large hyaloclastite scoria mound erupted beneath the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the Pleistocene. Its last eruption produced two small lava flows that traveled 1 km to the west, along with a blanket of volcanic ash that extends several km to the north and east of the cone. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)

4. Laguna del Maule (Chile)

Laguna Maule [ Photo by Jbaranao / free for use ]

Laguna del Maule is a lake located in the Andes of Central Chile. The lake is natural in origin but its water level was raised by a dam inaugurated in 1957. It has a capacity of 1,420 million m³. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)

5. Rano Kau, Easter Island (Chile)

Easter Island, crater Rano Kao, 1997 [ Photo by ProfessorX / CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

Rano Kau is a 324 m (1,063 ft) tall extinct volcano that forms the southwestern headland of Easter Island, a Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean. It was formed of basaltic lava flows in the Pleistocene with its youngest rocks dated at between 150,000 and 210,000 years ago. Rano Kau has a crater lake which is one of the island's only three natural bodies of fresh water. Most of the volcano is on the coast and has been eroded back to form high sea cliffs which at one point have started to bite into the crater wall. On its northern side, the volcano slopes down to Mataveri International Airport. Rano Kau is in the world heritage site of Rapa Nui National Park and gives its name to one of the seven sections of the park. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)

6. Rano Raraku, Easter Island (Chile)

Outer slope of the Rano Raraku volcano, the quarry of the Moais with many uncompleted statues. [ Photo by Rivi / CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed of consolidated volcanic ash, or tuff, and located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century, and supplied the stone from which about 95% of the island's known monolithic sculptures (moai) were carved. Rano Raraku is a visual record of moai design vocabulary and technological innovation, where 397 moai remain. Rano Raraku is in the World Heritage Site of Rapa Nui National Park and gives its name to one of the seven sections of the park. The sides of Rano Raraku crater are high and steep except on the north and northwest, where they are much lower and gently sloping. The interior contains one of the island's three freshwater crater lakes, which is bordered by nga'atu or totora reeds. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)

7. Heaven Lake (China & North Korea)

A crater lake at Tianchi (Heaven Lake, 天池) at Baitou (Chinese Changbai Shan) at the border of China and North Korea [ Photo by Bdpmax / CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

Heaven Lake (Ch'ŏnji or Cheonji in Korean; 天池 in Chinese) is a crater lake on the border between China and North Korea. It lies within a caldera atop the volcanic Baekdu Mountain, a part of the Baekdudaegan mountain range and the Changbai mountain range. Another showed them together, leaving ripples on the volcanic lake. The lake has a surface elevation of 2,189.1 m (7,182 ft). The lake covers an area of 9.82 km² (3.79 sq mi) with a south-north length of 4.85 km (3.01 mi) and east-west length of 3.35 kilometres (2.08 mi). The average depth of the lake is 213 m (699 ft) and maximum depth of 384 m (1,260 ft). From mid-October to mid-June, it is typically covered with ice. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)

8. Irazú Volcano (Costa Rica)

Volcán Irazú, Costa Rica. [ Photo by Dirk van der Made / CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

The Irazú Volcano (Spanish: Volcán Irazú) is an active volcano in Costa Rica, situated in the Cordillera Central close to the city of Cartago. Its name could come from either the combination of "ara" (point) and "tzu" (Thunder)or a corruption of Iztarú, which was the name of an indigenous village on the flanks of the volcano. In Costa Rica it is known by the name of "El Coloso" (The Colossus) due to the catastrophes that it has provoked in the past. The Irazú volcano is a complex volcanic shield. It is the highest active volcano in Costa Rica, and has an area of 500 km2 (190 sq mi)It has an irregular subconic shape, and its temperature oscillates between 3 °C and 17 °C. It is a stratovolcano with a summit elevation of 3432 metres. Its five craters are easily differentiated. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)

9. Cuicocha (Ecuador)

Cuicocha [ Photo by Tequendamia / CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

Cuicocha (kucha = lake) is a 3 km (2 mi) wide caldera and crater lake at the foot of Cotacachi Volcano in the Cordillera Occidental of the Ecuadorian Andes. Its name comes from the Kichwa Indigenous language and signifies: "Lago del Cuye" or Guinea Pig Laguna in English. It was given this name due to the shape of the largest Island located in the middle of the Laguna resembling a Guinea Pig. These animals play a significant part in the everyday life of Ecuadorians, as it reproduces rapidly and needs a minimum of food and care to survive, it makes for an excellent high protein meal especially for populations living in altitude. (based on awikipedia article / cc by-sa)

10. Coatepeque Caldera (El Salvador)

Lago de Coatepeque [ Photo by Mario Pleitez / CC BY 2.0 ]

Coatepeque Caldera also known as Lago De Coatepeque (Nahuatl cōātepēc, "at the snake hill") is a volcanic caldera in El Salvador in Central America. The caldera was formed during a series of major rhyolitic explosive eruptions between about 72,000 and 57,000 years ago. Since then, basaltic cinder cones and lava flows formed near the west edge of the caldera, and six rhyodacitic lava domes have formed. The youngest dome, Cerro Pacho, formed after 8000 BC. Lake Coatepeque (Lago de Coatepeque) is a large crater lake in the east part of the Coatepeque Caldera. It is in Coatepeque municipality, Santa Ana, El Salvador. There are hot springs near the lake margins. At 26 km², it is one of the largest lakes in El Salvador. In the lake is the island of Teopan, which was a Mayan site of some importance. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)

11. Lake Ilopango (El Salvador)

Lake Ilopango as seen from Santiago Texacuangos, El Salvador. [ Photo by Jorobeq (Jorobeq|talk) / CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

Lake Ilopango is a crater lake which fills a scenic 8 x 11 km (72 km2 or 28 sq mi) volcanic caldera in central El Salvador. The caldera, which contains the second largest lake in the country and is located immediately east of the capital city, San Salvador, has a scalloped 100 m (330 ft) to 500 m (1,600 ft) high rim. Four major dacitic – rhyolitic eruptions occurred during the late Pleistocene and Holocene, producing pyroclastic flows and tephra that blanketed much of the country. The caldera collapsed most recently during a cataclysmic eruption in the 5th century AD which produced widespread pyroclastic flows and devastated Mayan cities. This eruption produced about 25 km3 (6.0 cu mi) of tephra (20 times as much as the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens), thus rating a 6 on the (VEI) Volcanic Explosivity Index. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)

12. Laacher See (Germany)

Panorama view of the Maria Laach lake [ Photo by Magnus Manske / CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

Laacher Seeor Laach Lake (in English) is a caldera lake and a potentially active volcano, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated close to the cities of Koblenz (24 km), and Bonn (37 km), and closest to the towns Andernach (8 km), and Mayen (11 km). The caldera lake lies just 8 km from the river Rhine at Andernach. Just like the nearby 'Wehrer Kessel' volcano and Rieden volcano, the Laacher See volcano forms a volcanic caldera in the Eifel mountain range. It is part of the area called "East Eifel volcanic field". The great Eifel lake takes its name from the Old High German word "lacha" which in turn is derived from Latin "lacus" as English "lake". Thus the name literally means "Lake of the Lake" similar to the "Loch Lochy" in the Scottish Highlands with the same meaning. (based on a wikipedia article / cc by-sa)