Meaning & use

caldera

noun·Advanced

A large, bowl-shaped crater formed when a volcano collapses into its emptied magma chamber.

See it in a sentence

Yellowstone National Park sits atop one of the largest calderas in the world.

A lake now fills the ancient caldera left behind after the eruption.

A note on using this word

A caldera forms through collapse after an eruption, unlike a smaller crater, which forms directly from the force of an explosion.

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