Crater Lake Crater Lake .

Crater Lake Crater Lake winter pano2.jpg Panoramic winter view of Crater Lake from Rim Village Crater Lake is positioned in Oregon Crater Lake - Crater Lake Lake type crater lake Panoramic view of Crater Lake Spring 2016 Crater Lake (Klamath: giiwas) is a caldera lake in south-central Oregon in the United States.

It is the chief feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity.

The lake partly fills a nearly 2,148-foot (655 m)-deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 ( 150) years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama.

There are no rivers flowing into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by precipitation and snow flurry at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years.

With a depth of 1,949 feet (594 m), the lake is the deepest in the United States.

Crater Lake is also known for the "Old Man of the Lake", a full-sized tree which is now a stump that has been bobbing vertically in the lake for over a century. The low temperature of the water has slowed the decomposition of the wood, hence the longevity of the bobbing tree.

Two islands are in Crater Lake: Wizard Island, formed from a cinder cone that erupted after Crater Lake began to fill with water, and the lesser Phantom Ship, which has seven trees living on it.

While having no indigenous fish population, the lake was stocked from 1888 to 1941 with a range of fish.

Several species have formed self-sustaining populations. Since 2002, one of the state's regular-issue license plate designs has featured Crater Lake. The commemorative Oregon State Quarter, which was released by the United States Mint in 2005, features an image of Crater Lake on its reverse. Crater Lake is in Klamath County, approximately 60 miles (97 km) northwest of the governmental center of county of Klamath Falls, and about 80 miles (130 km) northeast of the town/city of Medford. In June 1853, John Wesley Hillman became the first non-Native American explorer to report sighting the lake he titled the "Deep Blue Lake." The lake was retitled at least three times, as Blue Lake, Lake Majesty, and finally Crater Lake. Wizard Island in Crater Lake National Park The lake is 5 by 6 miles (8.0 by 9.7 km) across, with a caldera rim ranging in altitude from 7,000 to 8,000 feet (2,100 to 2,400 m) and an average lake depth of 1,148 feet (350 m).

The lake's maximum depth has been calculated at 1,949 feet (594 m), which fluctuates slightly as the weather changes. On the basis of maximum depth, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States, the second-deepest in North America (after Great Slave Lake in Canada), and the ninth-deepest lake in the world. Crater Lake is often cited as the seventh-deepest lake in the world, but this ranking excludes Lake Vostok in Antarctica, which is beneath about 13,000 feet (4,000 m) of ice, and the recent depth soundings of O'Higgins/San Martin Lake, which is along the border of Chile and Argentina. When considering the mean, or average depth of lakes, Crater Lake becomes the deepest lake in the Western Hemisphere and the third-deepest in the world.

Crater Lake Institute Director and limnologist Owen Hoffman states "Crater Lake is the deepest, when compared on the basis of average depth among lakes whose basins are entirely above sea level.

The average depths of Lakes Baikal and Tanganyika are deeper than Crater Lake; however, both have basins that extend below sea level." Geologic map of the lake floor Eventually, the caldera cooled, allowing precipitation and snow to accumulate and form a lake.

Landslides from the caldera rim after that formed debris fans and turbidite sediments on the lake bed.

Also after some time, the slopes of the lake's caldera rim more or less stabilized, streams restored a radial drainage pattern on the mountain, and dense forests began to revegetate the barren landscape.

It is estimated that about 720 years was required to fill the lake to its present depth of 594 metres (1,949 ft).

Some hydrothermal activeness remains along the lake floor, suggesting that at some time in the future Mazama may erupt once again. Crater Lake is a subalpine climate, with the rare dry-summer type (Koppen classification Dsc) owing to its high altitude and like all of Oregon the strong summer influence of the North Pacific High.

Climate data for Crater Lake Due to a several unique factors, mainly that the lake has no inlets or tributaries, the waters of Crater Lake are some of the purest in the world because of the absence of pollutants.

The lake has mostly high levels of dissolved salts, total alkalinity, and conductivity.

Panorama of Crater Lake and Wizard Island The Klamath tribe of Native Americans, whose ancestors may have witnessed the collapse of Mount Mazama and the formation of Crater Lake, have long regarded the lake as a sacred site.

Mount Mazama was finished in the battle, creating Crater Lake, called giiwas in the Klamath language. The Klamath citizens used Crater Lake in vision quests, which often involved climbing the caldera walls and other dangerous tasks.

The tribe still holds Crater Lake in high regard as a spiritual site. List of lakes in Oregon a b c "Facts about Crater Lake".

"Crater Lake".

"Morphology, volcanism, and mass wasting in Crater Lake, Oregon" (PDF).

"Wind Currents In Crater Lake As Revealed By The Old Man Of The Lake".

Nature Notes from Crater Lake National Park.

"On the Trail The Old man of Crater Lake" (Video).

"The Fish of Crater Lake".

"Crater Lake plates aglow with color".

"Crater Lake National Park: Directions".

"Crater Lake Discovery Centennial".

Nature Notes from Crater Lake National Park.

"Crater Lake (Mount Mazama)".

"CMG Maps Bottom of Crater Lake, Oregon".

#9 Crater Lake (1,943 feet [592 meters]), #8 Great Slave Lake (2,015 feet [614 meters]) "Lake Baikal".

"Into the Deep: Crater Lake's ranking as one of the world's deepest lakes varies by how list is determined".

"A snowshoe view: Take a ranger-guided winter trek around snowy Crater Lake" (Oregon Life section).

"Crater Lake, On Average, Is Deepest Lake in North America" (see story comments as well).

"Mount Mazama Volcano and Crater Lake Caldera, Oregon".

"Morphology, volcanism, and mass wasting in Crater Lake, Oregon".

"Subaqueous geology and a filling model for Crater Lake, Oregon".

"Geologic History of Crater Lake".

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Climate at a Glance: Oregon Climate Division 5 (High Plateau) October to June Precipitation "CRATER LAKE NPS HQ, OREGON (351946)".

"Facts and Figures about Crater Lake" (PDF).

"Crater Lake as Sacred Site".

Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes, Stephen L.

"Eruptive history and geochronology of Mount Mazama and the Crater Lake region, Oregon".

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Crater Lake.

NPS: Crater Lake National Park USGS: Crater Lake Data Clearinghouse Oregon Institute of Technology: Crater Lake Digital Research Collection Crater Lake

Categories:
Crater Lake - Crater Lake National Park - Lakes of Oregon - Crater lakes - Sacred lakes - Religious places of the indigenous citizens s of North America - Cascade Volcanoes - Subduction volcanoes - Volcanic calderas of the United States - VEI-7 volcanoes - Cascade Range - Landforms of Klamath County, Oregon