caldera

American  

[kal-der-uh, kawl-] / kælˈdɛr ə, kɔl- /

noun

• calderas
  plural

1. a large, basinlike depression resulting from the explosion or collapse of the center of a volcano.

---

caldera British  

/ kælˈdɛərə, ˈkɔːldərə /

noun

1. a large basin-shaped crater at the top of a volcano, formed by the collapse or explosion of the cone See cirque

---

caldera Scientific  

/ kăl-dâr′ə,-dîr′ə,käl- /

1. A large, roughly circular crater left after a volcanic explosion or the collapse of a volcanic cone. Calderas are typically much wider in diameter than the openings of the vents from which they were formed.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• calderas
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

caldera calderas

Because much of the caldera lies beneath the sea, scientists could conduct broad and systematic surveys across the volcanic structure.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026

The discovery, led by researchers at Kobe University, could improve understanding of enormous caldera systems such as Yellowstone in the United States and Toba in Indonesia.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026

Poços de Caldas, a city built in the caldera of an extinct volcano, has become one of the centers of the rush.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

Famous examples include Yellowstone in the United States, Toba in Indonesia, and the largely submerged Kikai caldera in Japan.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 29, 2026

As soon as Christiansen saw the photos he realized why he had failed to spot the caldera: virtually the whole park–2.2 million acres–was caldera.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

The proposed magma re-injection model aligns with observations of large, shallow magma systems beneath other major calderas such as Yellowstone and Toba.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 29, 2026

Earth MRI has already shown that lithium prospectors need not stick to calderas.

From Science Magazine ● Jun. 1, 2023

The couple responsible for the film’s entrancing reels of explosions and rivers of molten rock — collected over decades of expeditions to active calderas around the globe — are French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2022

The valley was wide and flat, pocked with gaping calderas that blew enormous plumes of steam into the air, like sideways clouds drifting into the sky.

From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2020

The lava in the calderas boils because of escaping steam, but the vapor emitted is comparatively little, and seldom hangs above the summits in heavy clouds.

From The Elements of Geology by William Harmon Norton

Related Words

• hole
• mouth
• pit