Crater Lake National Park

This article is about the American national park in Oregon. For the national park in Queensland, Australia, see Crater Lakes National Park.
Crater Lake National Park
Panoramic view of Crater Lake
Map showing the location of Crater Lake National Park
Map showing the location of Crater Lake National Park
Location in Oregon
Map showing the location of Crater Lake National Park
Map showing the location of Crater Lake National Park
Location in the United States
LocationKlamath County, Oregon, United States
Nearest cityKlamath Falls
Coordinates42°54′43″N 122°08′53″W / 42.91183°N 122.14807°W / 42.91183; -122.14807
Area183,224 acres (741.48 km2)[1]
EstablishedMay 22, 1902 (1902-05-22)
Visitors527,000 (in 2022)[2]
Governing bodyNational Park Service
Websitenps.gov/crla Edit this at Wikidata

Crater Lake National Park is a national park of the United States located in southern Oregon. Established in 1902, Crater Lake is the fifth-oldest national park in the United States and the only national park in Oregon.[3] The park encompasses the caldera of Crater Lake, a remnant of Mount Mazama, a destroyed volcano, and the surrounding hills and forests.

The lake is 1,949 feet (594 m) deep at its deepest point,[4] which makes it the deepest lake in the United States, the second-deepest in North America and the tenth-deepest in the world.[4] Crater Lake is often referred to as the seventh-deepest lake in the world, but this former listing excludes the approximately 3,000-foot (910 m) depth of subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica, which resides under nearly 13,000 feet (4,000 m) of ice, and the recent report of a 2,740-foot (840 m) maximum depth for Lake O'Higgins/San Martin, located on the border of Chile and Argentina. However, when comparing its average depth of 1,148 feet (350 m) to the average depth of other deep lakes, Crater Lake becomes the deepest in the Western Hemisphere and the third-deepest in the world. The impressive average depth of this volcanic lake is due to the nearly symmetrical 4,000-foot-deep (1,200 m) caldera formed 7,700 years ago during the violent climactic eruptions and subsequent collapse of Mount Mazama and the relatively moist climate that is typical of the crest of the Cascade Range.

The caldera rim ranges in elevation from 7,000 to 8,000 feet (2,100 to 2,400 m). The United States Geological Survey benchmark elevation of the lake surface is 6,178 feet (1,883 m). The national park encompasses 183,224 acres (286.3 sq mi; 741.5 km2).[1] Crater Lake has no streams flowing into or out of it. All water that enters the lake is eventually lost from evaporation or subsurface seepage. The lake's water commonly has a striking blue hue, and the lake is refilled entirely from direct precipitation in the form of snow and rain.

  1. ^ a b "Listing of acreage – December 31, 2011" (XLSX). Land Resource Division, National Park Service. Retrieved September 24, 2013. (National Park Service Acreage Reports)
  2. ^ "NPS Annual Recreation Visits Report". National Park Service. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  3. ^ "Crater Lake". National Park Service. Retrieved August 18, 2006.
  4. ^ a b Bacon, Charles R.; James V. Gardner; Larry A. Mayer; Mark W. Buktenica; Peter Darnell; David W. Ramsey; Joel E. Robinson (June 2002). "Morphology, volcanism, and mass wasting in Crater Lake, Oregon". Geological Society of America Bulletin 114 (6): 675–692. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(2002)114<0675:MVAMWI>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0016-7606.