EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

                   The Aftermath of Mazama   

Crater Lake National Park
Oregon, USA

Explanation:  Scroll to the right for the full view ... 

This is the aftermath of a truly catastrophic "disturbance event" as the term is used in ecology.

Behold the result of a volcanic explosion that, some 6850 years ago, changed the face of the Cascade Mountains.  This is caldera, the remnant crater of Mount Mazama after the mountain exploded, expelling vast amounts of magma, and then collapsed into itself.  

The result, after millennia of rains and snowfalls, is the deepest lake in the United States and the seventh deepest in all the world.  Crater Lake plunges 1,949 feet (594 meters) to its maximum depth down into the ancient volcanic throat.  The caldera spans 6 miles (9.7 km) at is widest, rim to rim and the surface area of the lake covers over 20 square miles (53 sq km).  

Subsurface explorations have discovered saline hydrothermal pools with colonies of bacteria at the lake bottom.  Even a moss (Depanocladus adunous) grows within the clear waters as deep as 425 feet (130 m) -- a situation found only here. 

The unique nature of this ecosystem earned it National Park status in 1902.  Who knows, some day maybe one of the other volcanoes of the active Cascade Mountain range will follow the same fate, and another crater lake will be born.