Mount Mazama and Crater Lake

Where is it located?
Mount Mazama is located in the Cascade Range in the United States The coordinates are 42 N 122 W It is located in the state of Oregon

Picture from: http://www.watersedgeranch.info/images/OregonMap.png

Plate Tectonics
Mount Mazama occurs along a convergent boundary, where the North American and Juan de Fuca plates meet This boundary has created the entire Cascade Range, because the two plates are pushing against each other

Picture from: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/slabs.html

Plate Tectonics
The oceanic crust (the Juan de Fuca plate) is being subducted beneath the continental crust (the North American plate) The North American plate is moving towards the west and the Juan de Fuca plate is moving eastward

Picture from: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/slabs.html

Seismic Activity
In the area there is a multitude of earthquakes, some are shallow and others are very strong The current state of the plates is like the plate boundaries where some of the most devastating earthquakes occur There hasnt been any recorded much recorded activity in the recent past

Seismic Activity

Pictures from:http://www.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/CRATER/

What Occurs at Convergent Boundaries?

Island arcs are common along convergent boundaries and are volcano chains that occur under the water and then reach the surface (i.e. the Aleutian islands off the coast of Alaska)

What is Mount Mazama?

Mount Mazama used to be an active volcano, with an estimated maximum height of 3660 meters The last known eruption at the site was 4800 years ago About 7700 years ago the top of the mountain exploded off

Picture by Paul Rockwood and from: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs092-02/

Pumice and Ash Accumulation

This

picture shows some of the pumice and ash accumulation from the eruption of Mount Mazama 7700 years ago.

Photo by Ed Klimasauskas, USGS

What happened to it?

What remains of Mount Mazama is now a caldera with a diameter of 8 kilometers and a depth of 1.6 kilometers The caldera filled with water and is now the deepest lake in the United States and the 7th deepest lake in the world, with a depth of 592 meters

Images Showing Depth of Lake and Lake Bottom

From: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs092-02/

Images Showing Depth of Lake and Lake Bottom

The picture shows the depth of the lake (the colors change from orange to blue as depth increases) along with the details of the bottom of the lake There are depressions under the sediment due to steam explosions This image was created in 2000 with the use of sonar and using specialized software

From: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs092-02/

Crater Lake
Crater Lake is a National Park The lake is at its maximum depth because of a natural drainage process 30 meters of sediment lie at the bottom of the lake

Picture from: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs092-02/

Sequence of Events
This sequence starts with the top-blowing eruption, to the lake today In summary, the eruption occurred, led to the creation of a new caldera that filled with water to form a lake

Picture from: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs092-02/

What will happen?

It is predicted that eventually, the volcanic area will be active again, but not to the same extent as the one that changed the scenery to its form today However, it is possible for there to be pyroclastic surges in the more shallow areas of the lake

Defining terms
A caldera is a volcanic depression in Earths crust. A pyroclastic surge is a quickly moving cloud of gas and ash that is at very high temperatures.

A quote from a February 1901 edition of Pearsons Magazine

Showing how some mountains commit suicide by blowing off their heads, while others behave like Mount Mazama, which undermined its foundations with volcanic explosions, causing such extensive outflows of lava that the entire structure collapsed, and only a hole in the earth was left to mark the place where the Mountain once stood. ~By T.E. James.
From The Disappearance of Mount Mazama. http://gesswhoto.com/mt.mazama.html

Works Cited

Crater Lake. National Park Service, 2 Jan. 2010. Web. 5 Feb.

2010. <http://www.nps.gov/crla/ index.htm>.

Crater Lake, Oregon/ Mount Mazama, Oregon. USGS/Cascades

Volcano Observatory, Vancouver, Washington, 29 July 2008. Web. 6 Feb. 2010. <http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/CraterLake/ framework.html>. Klimasauskas, Ed, Charles Bacon, and Jim Alexander. Mount 2010. <http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs092-02/>. Lewis, C. The Disappearance of Mount Mazama. Pearson's Magazine, 1901. Web. 8 Feb. 2010. <http://gesswhoto.com/mt.mazama.html>

Mazama and Crater Lake: Growth and Destruction of a Cascade Volcano. U.S. Geological Survey, 17 May 2005. Web. 6 Feb.