The Active Volcano in Oregon; Crater Lake
Within Oregon is an active volcano that approximately 7800 years ago almost completely collapsed, forming the Crater Lake caldera. Formerly known as Mount Mazama, this stratovolcano used to be the tallest feature in the entire state of Oregon, reaching an impressive height of 12,000 feet. Today, Crater Lake’s caldera contains a fully solified cinder cone, three underwater vents, and the deepest lake in the entirety of the United States. This video covers the recent eruptions from the Crater Lake volcano, its climactic caldera forming eruption in 5783, and its geologic history.
Note: The Crater Lake volcano is today protected as part of the Crater Lake National Park.
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Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video’s thumbnail image:
Public Domain:
CC BY 4.0:
Sources/Citations:
[1] U.S. Geological Survey
[2] Source of Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) methodology and criteria: Newhall, C. G., and Self, S. (1982), The volcanic explosivity index (VEI) an estimate of explosive magnitude for historical volcanism, J. Geophys. Res., 87(C2), 1231–1238, doi: Accessed / Read by on Oct 5th, 2022.
[3] J. Ewert, A. Diefenbach, D. Ramsey, “2018 Update to the U.S. Geological Survey National Volcanic
Threat Assessment“, U.S. Geological Survey, Accessed October 22, 2022.
[4] VEIs, dates/years, eruption plume heights, and bulk tephra volume estimates for volcanic eruptions shown in this video which were assigned a VEI 4 or larger except for the bulk tephra volume figure of Crater Lake’s 5783 BCE eruption (only the date is sourced from this database) are sourced from the LaMEVE database (British Geological Survey © UKRI), Used with Permission.
[5] Karátson, D., Biró, T., Portnyagin, M. et al. Large-magnitude (VEI ≥ 7) ‘wet’ explosive silicic eruption preserved a Lower Miocene habitat at the Ipolytarnóc Fossil Site, North Hungary. Sci Rep 12, 9743 (2022). , CC BY 4.0
Note: The bulk tephra volume of Crater Lake’s 5783 caldera forming eruption is sourced from the paper cited as source [5].
0:00 An Ancient Cataclysm
0:15 Crater Lake Volcano
1:44 Geologic Setting
2:56 Fractional Crystallization
3:24 Large Rhyolite Lava Flows
4:08 Caldera Forming Eruption
5:59 Post Caldera Vents
6:36 Hazard Rating