caldera
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of caldera
1860–65; < Spanish Caldera, name of a crater on Canary Islands, literally, cauldron < Late Latin caldāria, noun use of feminine of caldārius of warming; see caldarium
Explanation
A caldera is a crater formed after the eruption of a volcano. The caldera is formed when the volcano collapses into itself. Volcanoes are impressive forces of nature with the power to wreak enormous destruction when they erupt. One sign of that power is a caldera, which is a crater formed after a volcano has erupted and collapsed into itself. Some of the more ancient calderas formed mountains and valleys in the Rockies and elsewhere. A related word in English is cauldron, whose modern meaning (a vessel for hot liquids) can remind us of the molten lava of a volcano.
Vocabulary lists containing caldera
The Blood of Olympus
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Cosmos
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The islands form the rim of a caldera created by a massive eruption around 3,600 years ago.
From Science Daily • Feb. 17, 2026
Lake Taupō, from which the town takes its name, is a large caldera, a volcano that has collapsed in on itself.
From BBC • May 20, 2025
Erebus is only a 20-minute helicopter ride from McMurdo, so since the 1960s scientists have studied the volcano and the lava lake that roils within its caldera, occasionally tossing out “bombs” of molten rock.
From Science Magazine • Dec. 2, 2024
The area surrounding the caldera has been closed to the public since 2008 because of other hazards, including ground cracking, instability in the crater wall and rockfalls.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 3, 2024
Empedocles is said to have died in an apotheotic fit by leaping into the hot lava at the summit caldera of the great volcano of Aetna.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
