Caldera

A caldera is a circular depression in the landscape produced by volcanism. They are formed when the magma tubes in a volcano cone become inactive and collapse. They can form on the surface of the Earth and other solid planets as well as their moons. On Earth it is not uncommon for them to fill with water.

The photo shown here is the caldera of mount Mazama in the Southern Oregon Cascade Mountains. It is the focal point of Crater Lake National Park, USA and is 2,487 meters ( 8,156 feet ) high and averages more than 8 kilometers ( 5 miles ) wide. Its deepest point is 597 meters ( 1,958 feet ), making it the deepest lake in the USA and the seventh deepest in the world.

Pilot Sighting

According to the Smiths Brothers Chronology of Crater Lake, on February 4, 1997 a pilot flying a small plane from Bend to Medford spotted three UFOs near Crater Lake that were being pursued by military jets. Many reports of sonic booms in western Oregon were reported that same evening.

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