A lake is a body of water surrounded by land. The lakes range in size from very large, such as the Caspian Sea and the Great Lakes in North America, to tiny bodies of water a few hundred square meters or even smaller. The water in them can be fresh, as in the lake. Top, or salty, like in the Dead Sea. Lakes are found at any altitude, from the lowest absolute mark on the earth's surface of -408 m (Dead Sea) and almost to the highest (in the Himalayas). Some lakes don't freeze all year round, while others, such as the lake. Wanda in Antarctica, ice-bound for most of the year. Many lakes exist permanently, while others (for example, Lake Eyre in Australia) are only rarely filled with water. Lakes are like oceans, but there are differences between them: lakes are smaller and more vulnerable to external influences, including natural climate change. Age is one of the significant differences between lakes and oceans. Only a few of the currently existing lakes, such as Tanganyika or Baikal, are several million years old. Most of the lakes are probably less than 12 thousand years old, and man-made lakes - artificial reservoirs - are only a few decades old.
ORIGIN OF LAKE POTS
Lakes fill the basins, which have different origins. Because these basins are often shaped by local conditions, lakes are concentrated in specific areas, such as the Lake District in northwest England, the Lake District in Austria, and the vast belt of lakes that span the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The formation of lacustrine basins is influenced by tectonic activity, volcanism, landslides, glacial processes, coastal processes, the accumulation of organogenic sediments, the damming up of watercourses by humans or beavers, and the fall of meteorites.
The oldest and deepest of the existing lakes arose under the influence of tectonic activity, however, most of the lakes were formed due to glacial processes. Nevertheless, the role of other listed factors is also important.
Volcanic activity leads to the formation of a variety of lake basins - from small rounded craters with low sides to large deep calderas that form when magma erupts through a side crater near the top of the volcano, which leads to the collapse of the volcanic cone. A vivid example of a caldera lake is Lake Crater in Oregon, formed during the eruption of the Mazama volcano approx. 6000 years ago. This picturesque lake of almost round shape has a depth of 608 m (the seventh deepest in the world). In the middle of the lake is Wizard Island, which emerged from a later eruption. Lakes of this type are found in Japan and the Philippines. In volcanic regions, lake basins can also form when hot lava flows out from under a colder surface lava horizon, which contributes to the subsidence of the latter (this is how Yellowstone Lake was formed), or in the case of damming rivers and streams with lava or mud lava flow during volcanic eruptions. This is how the basins of many lakes in Japan and New Zealand originated.
Kamchatka is a true "wonderland". A chain of formidable volcanoes stretches across Kamchatka. There are more than one hundred and forty of them here, including twenty-eight active ones. Lakes sometimes appear here and right in the craters of volcanoes, and then they amaze with the most unusual colors. For example, in the crater of Bolshoi Semyachik volcano there is Black Lake, the surface of which is covered with a black film of iron sulfides. The crater looks like a deep funnel with a diameter of about 700 m, slightly oval, at the bottom of which there is a lake. Sheer walls, rising 200 meters, resemble a lava and tuff layer cake. A wonderful addition to this very interesting crater is the lake of light green color. This color is caused by the smallest particles of sulfur floating in the water column, carried away by underwater fumaroles. The temperature of the lake is 30-40 ° С, its average diameter is about 500 m, the depth is up to 140 m. Descent to the lake is possible only from the northern side along live talus, interrupted by a rocky, stepped cliff with a height of about 20 m. The shores of the lake at the place of descent are blocked up in large lumps. The water tastes scalding sour. When volcanologists examined the lake in a rubber boat, they came back with difficulty: the aluminum blades of the oars were eaten by acids dissolved in water. The water salinity is very high, it exceeds the salt content in sea water. The beautiful emerald color of the lake up close is disappointing, turning into just muddy.
And Gorely volcano, unique even for Kamchatka (it has as many as nine craters!), Has two lakes at once: in the crater Blue Lake indeed, there is a reservoir with pale blue water, and nearby, in the Chalice crater, the water in the lake is purple. The formation of such colored lakes is associated with the different acidity of the water in the craters and the different composition of the lava in them.
VOLCANO SMALL SEED
Fig. 1 Troitsky crater on Maly Semyachik volcano.
Crater lake Crater Lake April 9th, 2013
National park Crater Lake is located in southern Oregon and was founded more than a century ago, on May 22, one thousand nine hundred and two. Crater Lake is a rather visited place by tourists - annually up to three hundred and ninety thousand guests come here.
This lake is located in the crater of the old extinct volcano called Mount Mazama. His maximum depth equal to five hundred and ninety-seven meters, which makes Crater Lake the fifth deepest lake in the country and the seventh among all the lakes of the planet. The length of the Kreiter is nine thousand six hundred meters, and the width is eight thousand meters. The average depth of the lake is approximately three hundred and fifty meters. Notable is the fact that not a single stream or river originates from the lake, just as they do not feed it with their waters. Tourists are attracted here not only by the amazing location of the lake in the volcano's caldera, but also by the poisonous blue hue of the local water.
The edges of the volcano's caldera are quite high - their height ranges from two thousand one hundred to two thousand four hundred meters above sea level. The caldera began its formation almost immediately after the destruction of Mount Mazama volcano, approximately seven thousand seven hundred years ago. Average lake height at this moment is one thousand eight hundred and eighty three meters above sea level.
About 7,700 years ago, there was a powerful eruption of the volcano of Mount Mazama. The resulting crater of the volcano, pushed by its own weight into the depths of the cooling lava, for many centuries was filled with melting snow and rains, which caused the crystal clear water and its extraordinary transparency. The lake has no outflow or inflow of rivers. According to experts, it took approximately 720 years for the volcano's crater to fill with water.
There were no fish in the lake by nature, but the attempts of ecologists to populate it were crowned with success, now salmon, trout and some others live here. For fishing, a license is not required and there are no restrictions on the amount of fish caught, but there is a requirement to use only artificial bait.
Giant Crater Lake - Crater Lake National park in Oregon was created about 150 years ago by the eruption of the Mazama volcano. (Photo by Rancois Gohier / Ardea / Caters News) 
The lake has changed its name three times. The first European American to visit the shores of the lake was John Wesley Hillman on June 12, 1853. He first named the lake Deep Blue, then changed the name to Blue Lake, Lake Majesty and finally Crater Lake.
Many tourists are attracted to this region by the hope of seeing Kreiter's mascot - "Old Man of the Lake", the legend of which has spread throughout the world. In fact, for about a hundred years, the "Old Man of the Lake" has been floating on the lake, in fact it turned out to be an ordinary log. Amazing is not only the swimming time of the log, but also the way of its wandering along the lake water surface - the log floats in an upright position. Perhaps, the life of the log was extended by Kreiter's water, or rather, its rather low temperature, capable of preserving the structure of the wood for many years.
Mount Mazama Volcano is part of the Cascade Mountains volcanic arc. Its main rocks are rhyodacite, dacite and andesite. The death of the volcano is considered to be its last eruption, which was so powerful that it led to its sinking. In the course of subsequent eruptions, volcanic forms close to modern ones were formed, Merriam Cone, Koldovskaya Island and a rhyodacite dome almost in the very center of the lake platform. The lake appeared thanks to precipitation and hot springs, which gradually cooled down. At the moment, scientists are inclined to believe that a new eruption of Mount Mazam is possible in the future.
Crater Lake was featured on the State's 25th Anniversary Coin, issued six years ago.
A volcanic lake is formed when water (rain, ground) fills a volcanic crater, which, as a rule, has a circular shape and high walls. Therefore, the reservoir has few tributaries and almost no runoff. Water can sometimes have a chemical composition that makes it impossible for living organisms to live in it. For example, lakes such as Rincon de la Vieja and Irazu in Costa Rica are acid colored lakes.
Lake Quilotoa, Ecuador. In translation "Kilotoa" means "Royal Tooth". This is one of the most beautiful and interesting places in all South America... It is located at an altitude of 3900 meters above sea level and is hidden in the Andes, in Ecuador, inside an ancient volcano crater.
Mazama Volcano Crater Reservoir, Oregon, USA. Its depth is 594 meters. It has the cleanest water in the world.
Crater Lake of the Albertine Rift in Africa. Much of the region is part of Virunga National Park, Rwenzori National Park and Queen Elizabeth Park in Uganda. All of Africa's amazing lakes are rift-formed and are located within the rift valley.
You can come to these amazing places and capture some memorable moments. A professional photographer in Italy, Artur Yakutsevich, will be happy to help you with this. He is one of the best and most famous Russian-speaking photographers in the world.
Crater lake located on Mount Pinabuto, near the borders of the Philippine provinces of Pampania, Tarlac and Zambales.
One of the three lakes on the island of Flores in Indonesia. There are three lakes in the Kelimutu volcano, interesting because they have different colors of water, but are located on the crest of one volcano. The first is Tivu Ata Mbutu (water of the old people) - blue and westernmost. The second and third - Tivu Nuva Muri Koo Fai (water of young boys and girls) and Tivu Ata Polo (Enchanted water) - are separated from each other by a crater wall, the water in them is green and red, respectively.
A natural pool on Mount Zao, located on the border between Yamagata and Miyagi prefecture in Japan. It is the most active volcano in northern Honshu. Lake diameter - 360 meters, depth - 60.
Lake of the great Katmai stratovolcano on the Alaska Peninsula. Its dimensions are 4.5 x 3 kilometers. Formed during the 1912 eruption.
Reservoir of the Taal volcano on the island of Luzon, Philippines.
The Derib crater basin on the Marra volcano, Darfur, in western Sudan. Marra is considered asleep, but not extinct.
Crater lake active stratovolcano Ruapehu in New Zealand.
The Yak Loum Reservoir is one of the attractions in the Ratanakiri province in northeastern Cambodia. Located 5 km from the provincial capital Banlung and fills a 4000-year-old volcanic crater. Due to the incredible depth of the lake (48 meters), its waters are very clean and transparent.
Volcanic Lake Kerid in the south of Iceland. It is relatively shallow (7-14 meters), but thanks to the minerals in the soil, it has an amazing shade.
The reservoir of the stratovolcano Licancabur, located in the southern part of the country, on the border of Chile and Bolivia. For most of the year, everything is covered with ice. it is one of the highest located lakes in the world, and despite the air temperature (up to -30 ° C), there is planktonic fauna.
Geothermal crater basin Viti, Askja. It is located in a remote part of the central highlands of Iceland, where it is the second deepest lake (220 meters). Viti is rich in minerals.
Divine Lake of the Pektusan volcano, lying on the border of China and the DPRK. Its maximum depth is 384 meters. It is usually covered with ice from mid October to mid June.
Small northern country Iceland has a ton of attractions in its stock. True, most of them have difficult-to-pronounce names. Such as, for example, Seljalandsfoss waterfall or the famous Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Against their background, the name of Lake Kerid is distinguished by its brevity and clarity for us. Moreover, this is an interesting and quite interesting place.
Lake Kerid is a small reservoir in the crater of the eponymous volcano. It is located in the southwestern part of the country, 200 meters from the Biskupstungnabraut road (or more simply road 35) and 15 kilometers north of Selfoss. The lake is included in the list of attractions in the Golden Circle of Iceland.
Lake Kerid on the map
- Geographic coordinates 64.040921, -20.884809
- Distance from the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, about 50 km
- To the nearest International airport Keflavik about 85 km
Kerid is located 214 meters above sea level, at the bottom of a crater about 55 meters deep. The caldera of the crater has the following dimensions 270 by 170 meters, and the dimensions of the lake itself are about 100 by 62 meters, which is comparable to the size football field... The depth of the lake does not exceed 14 meters, and the average is about 10 meters. Coastline is an almost regular oval with smooth edges. This is, of course, due to the shape of the caldera.
Geology of Lake Kerid
Kerid Crater was formed about 6,500 years ago and lies in the northern part of a series of craters known as Tjarnarholar (originally Tjarnarholar). Footprints volcanic activity are not very visible here, as most of the eruption sites are low-lying, and many of the craters are hidden by vegetation, but some of them are still noticeable and well known. Besides Kerida, these are also craters in the Seydisholar area.
Volcanologists assumed that Kerid was an explosive crater. That is, a crater formed approximately at ground level as a result of an explosive eruption. However, deeper studies in the area did not reveal the presence of any ash deposits that could be attributed to an explosive eruption. It is now believed that Kerid was originally a large slag crater. In its current form, the crater was likely formed by a small magma chamber below the surface of the earth, the upper part of which collapsed, thus forming such a formation. Gradually, the crater was filled with groundwater, and a lake appeared.
The remarkable fact is that the water in Kerida is not depleted, but rises and falls in accordance with changes in the water table. Thus, Lake Kerid is a kind of marker or indicator of the groundwater level in this area.
If you want to see a real classic, albeit extinct, volcano, then you should pay attention to the Fujiyama volcano in Japan. By the way, Fujiyama is a private property.
The inner slopes of the crater are not traditional black, but red volcanic rocks, which adds quite an interesting look to Lake Kerid. The vegetation on the slopes is scarce. From the south, the slopes to the lake are very steep, but from the north, they are so gentle that you can go down them directly to the shore of the reservoir.
Exploring Lake Kerid
German scientists measured the depth and explored Lake Kerid in 1932. Then they intended a depth of 8-9 meters, and also found crustaceans and plankton in the water.
Naturalist Geir Guyat conducted additional studies of the water from 1941 to 1954. According to his data, it turned out that the most great depth - 8.8 meters, and the smallest - 4.8 meters. The water temperature in winter is about 0 o C, and in summer from +12 to +16 o C. Nematodes, chironomid larvae, vatnabobba (a small snail with a shell) and vatnaskeljar (a species of the smallest freshwater molluscs) were found in the lower layers of the water. In the upper layers, zooplankton of the species svifdyr, brunnklukkur and a small stickleback fish (gasterosteus aculeatus) were found.
Both the lake and the Kerid crater are of interest to scientists, tourists, and even musicians.
You will not be able to get to Lake Kerid for free, you will have to pay an entrance fee of 400 ISK per person (this is about 225 rubles). As we already mentioned, the Kerid volcano is included in the tourist Golden Ring, so if you make a voyage around the country, then, most likely, it will be included in the mandatory program of many sightseeing tours... Be sure to check out this attraction.
The shape of Lake Kerid in the photographs is close to a perfect circle, but from space it is still oval Into the bottomless lake in the crater of an extinct volcano
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And at the present time there are little-studied and unexplored areas on the planet. Even in densely populated areas of the planet, there are to this day amazing desert places, stunning in their natural primordiality. One of these places is located in a country that is rightfully called the "African pearl" - in Uganda, on the territory of Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Albertina Rift ("rift" - a depression in the earth's crust) is surrounded by the highest mountains in Africa (for example, the Virunga Mountains with a height of up to 4.5 km), and on its territory there is this crater with one of the deepest lakes in the world - up to 1500 meters deep. The word "rift" in translation means "depression in the earth's crust."
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Such lakes, formed in the craters of extinct volcanoes, have a fantastic charm. You look from a height at all this beauty - and you want to go into it with your head forever. Well, or at least visit there as a tourist for a week or two.
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Queen Elizabeth National Park is the most visited protected area in Uganda, located in the west of the country on an area of \u200b\u200b1,978 km² between Lakes George and Edward around the Kazinga Canal that connects them, and includes the Maragambo forests. Borders with the Kigezi, Kibali Reserves and Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Founded in 1952. Named after Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain in memory of her 1954 visit.
If in the 1920s-1960s a number of laws had not been adopted that announced that this territory is under state protection and is a nature reserve, ecologists state, today one of the most unusual monuments wildlife - Western Rift.
It is known for its diverse fauna. Despite the fact that many animals died during the Ugandan-Tanzanian War, many species have been restored - hippos, elephants, leopards, lions and chimpanzees. The park is now home to nearly 100 species of mammals and over 600 species of birds.
The protected area of \u200b\u200bthe park includes various natural areas from savannah and wetlands to river banks and floodplain forests. Its territory is dominated by the water surface - the park includes 250 km of lake shores.
In 1979 the park was turned into biosphere reserve in order to join forces with the population to protect wildlife... There are several fishing villages on the territory, in which representatives of several ethnic groups live - Bayankors, Bakira and Batoro. The national park is divided into four sectors: the Kazinga channel, Chambura, Ishasha or the southern sector of the park and the Maramagambo forest.
The Western Rift, also called the Albertine Rift, is a rift valley (formed by large linear depressions in the earth's crust), framed by some of the most high mountains in Africa, including the Virunga Mountains, Mitumba Mountains and Rwenzori Ridge. It is here that a number of Rift Valley lakes are located - lakes that include some of the deepest lakes in the world (Lake Tanganyika, which reaches a depth of 1,470 meters (4,800 ft). Much of this area is within national parks such as Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwenzori National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, and Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda Lake Victoria is considered part of the rift valley system, although it actually lies between the two parts. All African Great Lakes formed as a result of the appearance of rifts, and most of these lakes are located within the rift valley.
