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Untouched Blue

a view to die for . . .

. . . or at least photograph

CRATER LAKE ......Usually I touch up photos before posting them on my website. Well, actually, I always touch them up. Always. However, the blue water of Crater Lake is really this blue.

On the first stop along the rim, there were some very tame (but wild) chipmunks. They actually crawled on to my lap! However, they lost their charm at the ranger's station. There was a $50 fine for feeding them (which I didn't do!) It wasn't healthy for them and it certainly wasn't healthy for humans. Some of those suckers carried Lyme disease and bubonic plague. I itched the rest of the afternoon.

Now the facts, as quoted from Wikipedia. "Crater Lake is a caldera lake in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly 4,000 feet (1,220 m) deep caldera that was formed around 5,677 (± 150) BC by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. On June 12, 1853, John Wesley Hillman was reportedly the first European American to see what he named "Deep Blue Lake" in Oregon. The lake was later renamed Crater Lake."

As stated by Wikipedia, the lake was formed when Mt. Mazama exploded. The eruption, estimated to have been 42 times more powerful than Mt. St. Helens' 1980 blast, reduced Mazama's approximate 11,000 foot (c.3350 m) height by around half a mile (about 1 km) when much of the volcano fell into the volcano's partially emptied neck and magma chamber. When that happened, it collapsed upon itself, creating the bowl-shaped caldera. The bottom was sealed by lava flows. Eventually, after cooling off, the caldera filled up with run-off from melting snow and rainfall.

Copyright 2007 by Phillip Martin All rights reserved.