How to make a caldera

 

This is a really great demonstration. I want to do it myself. Unfortunately, I think if I did, I'd make a mess in the kitchen and waste a lot of flour.  So I guess I'll leave it to the geology classes.

So, one of the most famous calderas in the USA and the world is Crater Lake in Oregon.  I'll provide a picture.

One of the notable aspects of Crater Lake is that it's really deep. The bathymetry map below shows how deep that is.

So the light blue to dark blue shades indicate depths of 400+ to 550+ meters (1300-1800 feet).  It's the deepest lake in the USA, of course.

So why did I do that?  Well, a big caldera means that a lot of magma was erupted.  The eruption of Mount Mazama was so big that it became a Native American tale told around the campfire or on a fishing trip.  There's a really common painting of the eruption, but I found a different one.  More fun than that, I found a drawing of what Mazama might have looked like before it became a caldera with a lake in it.  Check out the pictures.