The collapse of a volcano's summit into a large, roughly circular depression after a magma chamber beneath it empties rapidly during a major eruption, removing the support that held the overlying rock up. Calderas can span many kilometres across, as at Yellowstone and Crater Lake, and often host later, smaller volcanic activity within the collapsed basin.
Facts
Process Type Timescalea rare event, occurring only a few times within a 100-year window worldwide 2 First Proposed Year Connections
Sources
1. Volcano - Wikipedia
Introduction sectionQuote, Introduction section
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging
2. Caldera - Wikipedia
Caldera formation section, rarity of caldera-forming events
Compared to the thousands of volcanic eruptions that occur over the course of a century, the formation of a caldera is a rare event, occurring only a few times within a given window of 100 years.
Etymology section
The term caldera was introduced into the geological vocabulary by the German geologist Leopold von Buch when he published his memoirs of his 1815 visit to the Canary Islands,
Caldera formation section, magma chamber collapse mechanism
The ejection of large volumes of magma in a short time can upset the integrity of a magma chamber's structure by in effect removing much of the chamber's filling material.
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