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- In geology, a very large basin-shaped crater.
- Calderas are found at the tops of volcanoes,
- where the original peak has collapsed into an
- empty chamber beneath. The basin, many times
- larger than the original volcanic vent, may
- be flooded, producing a crater lake, or the
- flat floor may contain a number of small
- volcanic cones, produced by volcanic activity
- after the collapse. Typical calderas are
- Kilauea, Hawaii; Crater Lake, Oregon, USA;
- and the summit of Olympus Mons, on Mars. Some
- calderas are wrongly referred to as craters,
- such as Ngorongoro, Tanzania.
-