Lake formed in the crater of a volcano. The colorful lakes in the crater of the extinct Kelimutu volcano are unusual lakes. Crater lake in the Rift Valley, Africa
Volcanic lakes
Once, a very long time ago, the crust of our planet was in the process of its formation. It's scary to imagine what happened! Mountains rose and entire continents collapsed into the abyss. Volcanoes spewed pillars of fiery lava and smoke into the sky. Good thing we didn't live at that time. It would be more correct to say that we would not have lived - who would have survived there, I wonder. On the one hand, hot lava, on the other, a saber-toothed tiger, and on the third, a bottomless abyss ... But today we can freely admire the landscapes and natural creations left to us as a memory of that era. Take, for example, volcanic lakes.
When a volcano works, its top is open, fire, ash, smoke and lava fly out from there. Remember how Icelandic volcanoes quite recently they spoiled the blood of European air traffic controllers and ordinary passengers of airlines. But all volcanoes someday stop their activity, in other words, they die out. Their crater or vent is clogged with the remains of ash, pieces of volcanic rock. A certain depression is formed, which is gradually filled - what would you think? Right! Rain and melt water. Lakes of wondrous beauty are formed on the tops of former volcanoes. Imagine - a wonderful lake among the pure mountain air, where production waste does not fall, no one throws or drains anything.
There are such places on the planet. And not just one, mind you. Take at least the independent state of Samoa. IN small village Latofaga miraculously preserved a real corner of paradise beauty - To Sua Ocean Trench. A small lake in a crater a long time ago extinct volcano. Surrounded by an impenetrable wall rainforest, the lake is alive and well to this day. Locals consider it healing and take sacred baths in it. The amazing thing is, the less we, people, know about this or that place, the more beautiful it looks and the better it is preserved. We need to think hard about this. Something is wrong, either with us or with nature.
Lake Taupo in New Zealand. The area of the entire lake is 616 square kilometers, located on one of the islands. Imagine what a volcano it was! According to scientists last time it erupted almost 30 thousand years ago and it was the most powerful eruption over the past 70 thousand years. During the explosion of this volcano, almost 1200 cubic kilometers (!) of solid particles were thrown into the atmosphere. We do not undertake to judge, but scientists predict the resumption of activity of this giant in the next hundred years.
The oldest and largest volcanic lake in the world is Lake Toba in Indonesia. 100 km long and 30 km wide. Some kind of volcanic sea! It was formed about 70 thousand years ago as a result of powerful explosion over the past 100 thousand years. There is evidence that as a result of this explosion, global cooling occurred and many species of animals and plants died.
Crater Lake, another amazingly beautiful lake volcanic origin. It is located in the state of Oregon in the USA. In terms of beauty, Oregon generally gives all other states two points ahead. What is the value of one well of Thor and the Guardian of Eternity located on its territory? This lake has the cleanest and most transparent species. So clean that looking into it, you can see its entire depth of 43 meters. Take the picturesque shores to this, framing the lake with a border and there is no limit to your delight! Although the lake is only 7700 years old, it is quite large and deep.
Another note is that almost all volcanic lakes Ah, the water is amazingly clean and healing. As if from the very bowels of the earth something special rises specially, which has a beneficial effect on the human body. The Earth itself extends a helping hand to people. Maybe people should extend their hand to her in response?
Such a lake can form in several different ways: first of all, it can be a simple crater filled with water. Another form of formation is when a volcano erupts, releasing a large number of magma. After that, a void is formed, falling under the weight of the earth and forming a crater, which is eventually filled with water. All of these lakes have an explosive past, a beautiful and majestic present, and a potentially destructive future. Each of the volcanic lakes contains its own history.
Lake Ijen
Ijen Lake is a crater-type lake located in East Java, Indonesia. It is located in a group of stratovolcanoes, in the Ijen volcano. Acid lake 1 km wide, with beautiful turquoise water. It is a well-known sulfur mining hotspot, as there are active geysers on one side of the lake that are constantly bringing sulfur to the surface. There it is broken into pieces and carried out of the crater in baskets. Molten, hot-red sulfur passes through the channels, depositing on the bottom, where it cools to a bright yellow color.
Coatepeque caldera lake
Coatepeque Caldera is a volcanic caldera in El Salvador. It was formed after a series of huge eruptions 72,000 and 54,000 years ago. After these two great volcanic eras, cones formed and volcanic domes, and large areas from lava flows along western edge calderas. On the east side of the caldera is a volcanic lake called Coatepeque. This lake covers an area of 26 km. sq., which makes it one of the most big lakes in El Salvador. Many hot springs constantly fill Coatepeque with water. Notable is the island called Teopan, which was sacred place for the Maya Indians.
Lake Towada on the island of Honshu
Lake Towada is the largest volcanic lake in Japan and the 12th largest in Japan. It is located in the caldera of an active volcano with the last major eruption dating back approximately 13,000 years ago. Towada is actually located in a double caldera, since not big eruption destroyed another caldera under the lake about 5,400 years ago. The moments of volcanic eruptions are well recorded in history, and the last famous eruption was about 1000 years ago. Devastating ash and pyroclastic flows destroyed crops and even caused temperatures to drop, followed by a cold winter and severe famine.
Lake Katmai Volcano
Katmai Volcano is a complex of stratovolcanoes found on the Alaskan Peninsula in southern Alaska. In the center is a filled lake caldera, approximately 4 km in diameter. The caldera was formed by the eruption of Novarupta in 1912, its rim now reaches a maximum of 2,047 meters. Virtually nothing was known about the volcano before the huge eruptions in 1912, due to the uninhabitable location, but some records have been left by neighboring villages since the 1800s that the Katmai volcano in the area is often active.
Lake Laach in Germany
Lake Laach, also known as the Laacher See, is located in the Rhineland Caldera, Germany. It is approximately 9 km in diameter, near the cities of Koblenz (24 km), Bonn (37 km), Andernach (8 km) and Mayen (11 km), at a distance of 8 km from the river Rhine. The caldera was formed after the massive eruption of the Laacher See volcano, which occurred approximately 12,900 years ago. Approximately 6 cubic kilometers of magma was erupted, almost 16 cubic kilometers. ash is released into the atmosphere. This eruption caused a global cooling and the ash can be found all over Europe, with many unique minerals found in the area.
Lake Taupo in New Zealand
Lake Taupo is located on the North Island and is the most big lake in New Zealand. The surface area is approximately equal to 616 km2. Taupo is believed to have formed around 26,500 years ago. The largest known eruption occurred 69,000 years ago, and scored 8 on the VEI scale (Volcanic Eruption Scale). Approximately 1170 km3 of magma and ash were ejected into the atmosphere, and a large caldera and lake formed. Taupo is believed to have erupted approximately 27 times since then, and the last major eruption can be dated to 180 AD, when 30 km3 of ash and lava was ejected from the volcano in 5 minutes. The ash column from the eruption was twice as high as that from the eruption of Mount St. Helena, chronological records from China and Rome claimed that the sky turned red. This volcano is currently considered dormant, but it is likely that it will wake up from its long dormancy in a few hundred years.
Lake Toba
Lake Toba - huge lake in a caldera on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Over 100 km long and 30 km wide, Toba is the largest in Indonesia and the largest volcanic lake in the world. It formed +/-70,000 years ago when a massive super volcano erupted in the largest volcanic explosion in at least 25 million years. The eruption, believed to have had a VEI of 8, caused a global winter in which most of the people living at the time died.
Lake Crater
Crater Lake is a beautiful caldera lake in South Central Oregon, USA. It has stunning dark blue water, perfectly clear. Crater is the main attraction in the National Park of the same name. The lake is one of the clearest bodies of water in the States with a depth of clarity of 43.3 meters. It was formed approximately 7,700 years ago when Mount Mazamu's volcano collapsed into the caldera below it. It is believed that the Klamath Indian tribe saw the fall of Mazama and the formation of Crater Lake. Their legends and stories speak of a great battle between the sky god Skell and Llao, the god of the underworld. The mountain was destroyed during the battle, and was created amazing beauty lake. The Klamath people used the lake to search for visions, and it still plays an important role in the spiritual life of the tribe. Crater is also famous for the "old man" - once a big tree, now a stump that has been growing right in the middle of the lake for over a century. It is well preserved due to the cold temperature of the water.
Heavenly Lake in China
The lake of heaven is located on the border between China and North Korea. It is located in a caldera and covers approximately 9.82 km. sq. This is a stunningly beautiful lake that is usually covered in ice from October to June. This is also a home legendary monster, called the Tianchi Lake Monster. In 1903 he was noticed for the first time. The creature looked like a buffalo and attacked 3 people, then retreated back into the water after receiving 6 bullets before that. In 1962, a telescope viewer reported seeing two creatures chasing each other in the water, and hundreds of people confirmed the sighting the same day. The description of the monster has changed over the years, now it was a creature with a 1.5 meter neck, with a white ring around the base of its neck, and gray skin. In 2007, a reporter named Zhuo Yongsheng said he filmed 20 minutes of video showing six unidentified creatures swimming in a lake. He showed fragments of the film, in which six unidentified creatures swam and interacted with each other. He said that they swam around for almost 1 hour before disappearing underwater.
Lake Nyos in Cameroon
Lake Nyos, 2 km long, is located in the North-Western part of Cameroon. Beneath it is a chamber of magma, from which carbon dioxide constantly seeps out, turning water into carbonic acid. More than a thousand years of penetration carbon dioxide, seeping into the lake, made it supersaturated, which had some devastating effects on August 2, 1986. A shift in the underground plate caused the lake to release 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide, which escaped at a speed of 100 km. The cloud suffocated over 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock within a 25 km radius. This is the first known mass asphyxiation due to natural phenomenon, after which the Guinness Book of Records named Nyos the most dangerous lake in the world. Scientists are still working on cleaning up the lake to make it safer. Champagne Pool
Again, this is not quite a lake, but still a stunning aftermath of a volcanic eruption. The Champagne Pool is an outstanding geothermal phenomenon in Wai-O-Tapu, a geothermal area in the Bay of Plenty, near north island New Zealand. Hot spring located approximately 30 km southeast of Rotorua and 50 km northeast of Taupo. This name is derived from great content carbon dioxide (CO2), which makes it look like a pool of bubbling champagne. The hot spring was formed 900 years ago by a hydrothermal eruption, making it a relatively young system geologically. Its crater is approximately 65 meters in diameter, with a maximum depth of approximately 62 m. The Champagne Basin is filled with an estimated volume of 50,000 m3 of geothermal fluid. The orange tint around the edges is due to arsenic deposits.
crater lake- this is a lake that was formed when a volcanic crater, caldera, maar or impact crater was filled with water.
Sky Lake on the border of North Korea and China
The crater lake, as a rule, has the shape of a circle and high sheer walls, has few tributaries and almost no drains - usually the crater is filled with rainwater (for maars - with groundwater).
Crater Lake in US National Park
Life in such a lake is impossible due to the chemical composition of the water. Often crater lakes have different color shades. Examples of such colored acid lakes are Rincón de la Vieja and Irazu in Costa Rica.
Below are some photos of the most beautiful crater lakes in the world. We used materials from Wikipedia, as well as from users of the Flickr.com and NationalGeographic.com photosites.
Crater Lake - Oregon, USA
Photo: Ben Canales
Crater Lake National Park national park listen)) is located in southern Oregon, United States. The main attraction of the park is Crater Lake. The park was founded on May 22, 1902, becoming the fifth national park in the United States. On the territory of the park is the caldera of the extinct super-volcano Mount Mazama (Mount Mazama), in which a lake formed. The most deep point lakes - 597 m, Crater Lake is the deepest in the United States and the seventh deepest in the world. The edges of the caldera are located at an altitude of 2100 to 2400 m above sea level, average height the lake itself is 1883 m. The area of the park is 741 sq. km. No rivers or streams flow into the lake. The water of the lake very often has a bewitching blue hue.
Lake Quilotoa - Ecuador
Photo: Annom
Quilotoa (Spanish: Quilotoa) is a lake-filled volcanic caldera and the westernmost volcano of the Ecuadorian Andes. The caldera is 3 km wide and was formed as a result of the collapse of a volcano after a catastrophic explosion about 800 years ago. The depth of Lake Quilotoa is 250 m, the water has a greenish color due to dissolved minerals. At the bottom of the eastern part of the lake there are numerous fumaroles and hot springs.
Crater Lake in the East African Rift Valley - Africa
Photo: Joel Sartore
The East African Rift Valley (also known as the Great Rift Valley) is a large rift landform extending approximately 6,000 km from northern Ethiopia to central Mozambique in East Africa. The name was coined at the end of the 19th century by the British explorer John Walter Gregory.
Lake Kelimutu - Indonesia
Photo: Rosino
Kelimutu (Indon. Kelimutu) is a volcano on the Indonesian island of Flores with a height of 1639 m. Due to the three crater lakes, each of which is painted in its own color, Kelimutu is a popular tourist attraction. The last known eruption took place in 1968. The three lakes of Kelimutu, in which various minerals are dissolved, change their color from black to turquoise, red-brown or green over the course of several years. The lake in the west of the volcano is called Tiwu-Ata-Mbupu (Lake of the Old Men), the other two are called Tiwu-Nua-Muri-Kooh-Tai (Lake of Boys and Girls) and Tiwu-Ata-Polo (Enchanted Lake). Local residents from the village of Moni, located at the foot of the volcano, believe that the souls of the dead go to these lakes and their color change means that they are angry.
Lake Pinatubo - Philippines
Photo: nucksfan604 on Flickr
Lake Pinatubo (Philipp. Lawa ng Pinatubo) is a crater lake of the volcano of the same name. Formed after the eruption on June 15, 1991. The lake is located near the borders of the Philippine provinces of Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales, 90 km from the capital city of Manila. The deepest in the country is 800 meters.
Okama Lake - Honshu Island, Japan
Photo: Aaron Jarrad (TheTownSHeriff on Flickr)
Mount Zao is a volcano on the border between the Japanese prefectures of Yamagata and Miyagi. Is the most active volcano in northern Japan. central volcano The Okama crater lake is also known as the "Lake of Five Flowers" ("Gosiki Numa") because it changes color depending on the weather. The diameter of the lake is about 360 meters, the depth is 60 meters.
Lake Katmai - Alaska, USA
Photo: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps
Katmai is an active stratovolcano (layered volcano) in the south of the Alaska Peninsula, located on the territory national park Katmai. The volcano, reaching 10 km in diameter, has a central caldera filled with a lake, the size of which is 4.5 by 3 kilometers. The lake was formed after the eruption of the Novarupta volcano in 1912. Max Height Katmaya, on which the caldera lies, is 2047 meters above sea level.
Volcano in the middle of Taal Lake - Luzon, Philippines
Photo: Junjun Mac1
Taal (Taal) - active volcano in the Philippines. Located 50 km south of Manila on the island of Luzon. volcano crater with small lake located at an altitude of 350 meters. Taal is the smallest active volcano on Earth. The lake was formed about 100-500 thousand years ago. Subsequent volcanic activity formed in the middle of the lake new volcano in the form of an island. It has erupted more than 30 times since 1572. Last eruption occurred in 1965, about 200 people died.
Deriba Lake – Darfur, Sudan
Photo: J Williams
Marra is an extinct volcano on the Darfur plateau in Western Sudan. It is located between the Sudanese city of El Fasher and the border with Chad. Marra is surrounded by a rocky desert, in the center of the volcano there are two lakes of Deriba. The last eruption occurred around the 20th century BC. e.
Lake on Mount Ruapehu - New Zealand
Photo: Adrian Macneil
Ruapehu (Maori "thundering abyss") - an active stratovolcano in New Zealand, is the most high point North Island with a height of 2797 meters. The slopes of the volcano are covered with forests. Above 1700-2000 m there are snows and glaciers. The last eruption occurred on September 25, 2007.
Lake Yak Lum – Ratanakiri, Cambodia
Photo: Ethan Crowley
Yak Lum (Khmer) is a popular tourist lake in the province of Ratanakiri in northeastern Cambodia. Located about 5 km from the provincial capital, Banlung. The lake occupies a volcanic crater about 4 thousand years old. The depth is about 48 m, the water is exceptionally clean and transparent. The lake has an almost perfect round shape, about 720 m in diameter. Huge tropical trees grow around the lake and many exotic animals are found.
Lake Kerid – Iceland
Photo:progresschrome
Kerid (or Keriz) is a crater lake located in the south of Iceland, on the site of a popular tourist route known as Golden ring, near the town of Selfoss. The depth of the caldera reaches 55 meters (the lake itself is about 10 m), the width is 170 meters, and the length in diameter is 270 meters. Keriza Caldera is one of the three most visible volcanic craters. Age - 3 thousand years. Other famous craters are Seydisgolyar and Kergotl.
LakeLicancabur- Chile
Photos: Albert Backer
Licancabur (Spanish: Licancabur) is a stratovolcano in Chile. The height above sea level of the peak is 5920 m. The volcano is located in the southern part of the border of Chile with Bolivia. The extensive ruins of Inca structures located at the top testify to the absence major eruptions over the last 500-1000 years.
LakeViti- Iceland
Photo: Boaworm
The active volcano Askja (Isl. Askja) is located on the territory of the Vatnajökull National Park. The height of the volcano is 1510 m above sea level. During the volcanic eruption that began on March 29, 1875, two large lakes. Eskuvn (Isl. Öskjuvatn) - with an area of about 11 sq. Km and a depth of up to 220 m - is the most deep lake Iceland. Located in the southern part of the lake small island Eia, formed during the 1926 eruption. Viti (Isl. Viti, “hell”) is a geothermal lake on the northern shore of the Escuvan, with a diameter of about 100 m and a depth of about 7 meters. The water in the lake is milky blue, its temperature ranges from 20 to 27 °C. Feels around the lake strong smell sulfur, which is why it is called "Hell".
Sky Lake - China, North Korea
Photo: Bdpmax
Cheongji or Tianchi (Korean and Chinese "heavenly lake") is a crater lake located on the border of the DPRK and China. Located in the caldera volcanic mountain Paektusan, which is part of the Changbaishan Range. Since 1979, the lake has been part of an international biosphere reserve.
Acid lake volcano April 22nd, 2016
Maly Semyachik Volcano (Mount Srezannaya, Maly Semiachik Volcano, Srezannaya mountain) is part of the Karymskaya group of volcanoes and is located 15 km northeast of Karymsky volcano and 20 km west of Kronotsky Bay.
In the crater of the volcano you can observe a real miracle. After all, somewhere else you will meet an amazing acid lake, the waters of which are saturated with sulfuric, hydrochloric, hydrofluoric acids and other compounds! It is because of this "explosive mixture" that the waters of the lake in the Maly Semyachik crater have such a fabulously turquoise color.
Let's learn more about the volcano and the lake...
Photo 2. 
The Maly Semyachik Volcano is a short volcanic ridge about 3 km long along the top, consisting of three merged cones: the northern ancient cone, which is the highest - 1560 m, the middle cone with a half-filled crater, and the southwestern cone with a nest of craters, including the active Troitsky crater.
Once upon a time, a volcano with a base diameter of about 20 km was located on the site of a modern volcano. Approximately 17 thousand years ago, as a result of explosive and collapse processes, a caldera with a diameter of about 15 km was formed. The remains of the disappeared volcano Sten in the form of an arched ridge are located to the east of the modern volcano.
Photo 3. 
Troitsky crater, named after a member of many Kamchatka expeditions, who surveyed Maly Semyachik, V.D. Troitsky, is a deep funnel with a diameter of about 700 m, slightly oval, at the bottom of which lies a lake. Sheer walls, rising to 200 m, are composed of alternating layers of lavas and tuffs, giving them a striped color. The colors are complemented by fumarole deposits - white, yellow and greenish tones.
The most remarkable part of this interesting crater in itself is the light green lake. This coloration is caused by the smallest sulfur particles floating in the water column, taken out by underwater fumaroles. The temperature of the lake is 30-40 °C. Its average diameter is about 500 m, depth is up to 140 m. Descent to the lake is possible only with north side, along live talus, interrupted by a rocky stepped cliff of about 20 m. Belaying with a rope is obligatory. The shores of the lake at the point of descent are littered with large boulders. The water tastes sour-sour. When volcanologists examined the lake from a rubber boat, they returned with difficulty: the aluminum blades of the oars were eaten by acids dissolved in the water. The mineralization of water is very high, higher than the salt content in sea water. The beautiful salad color of the lake from above, close up disappoints, turning into just muddy.
Photo 4. 
The place of modern activity of the volcano is only the Troitsky crater. In 1945-1946 locals observed rising from the volcano "smoke". As it was established later, there were strong emissions that increased the area of the crater lake by 8-10%.
There are six side cones at the foot of the volcano. The tops of some of them end with rocks - necks, lava cores frozen in channels.
Volcano Maly Semyachik is a natural monument
Photo 5. 
The Maly Semyachik volcano group also includes volcanoes: Berezovy (or Double), Northern Coastal, Southern Coastal, Stepped Bastion, Stenka (volcanic remains), as well as lateral cones of the volcano. The whole group is extended into a short, 3 km ridge, clearly visible from the village of Zhupanovo from the Pacific coast.
Strong catastrophic eruption volcano occurred around 1800. Streams and beams were filled up, forests were destroyed, large areas were covered with rubble and sand. The area now occupied by a grove of graceful fir, the only one in Kamchatka, is covered with sand. Then a weak eruption occurred in 1851-1852. Strong outgassing was observed in 1945-1946. At this time, a black cloud was rising over the crater. In 1952, intense hovering was observed over the volcano
Photo 6. 
The descent to the lake is possible only from the north side along live screes, which are interrupted by a rocky cliff about 20 meters high.
Photo 7. 
How to get to the acid lake in Kamchatka?
The transport infrastructure in Kamchatka is very poorly developed. For this reason, travelers have only two options for how to get to the acid lake in the crater of the Maly Semyachik volcano.
First, you can use a helicopter. For Kamchatka it is the usual way movement. Local tour operators often organize sightseeing tours in Kamchatka, during which the helicopter necessarily flies over the acid lake of Maly Semyachik.
Secondly, you can go to acid lake on foot in tourist group. Kamchatka travel agencies offer hiking tours along the mountains of Kamchatka, the route of which can also run through the volcanoes of Maly Semyachik. It should be noted that the volcano is located 135 km from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Photo 8. 
The bottom of the lake is pitted with fumaroles, which determine its changeable character. From time to time the water level changes: in one dimension it was 140 meters, in another - 117. The temperature of the lake is also not constant. It is almost always hot, but the temperature can vary from a little over 20 degrees to almost 60. And more recently, since 1992, the lake began to freeze in winter. In some years, non-freezing areas remain on its surface, in others, the snow cover is even. But even when there is snow on the lake, you can smell sulfur from it. The lake is constantly observed by geologists, tourists are actively interested in it.
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