Crater Lake is a caldera lake located in the south-central region of 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 655 m deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. There are no rivers flowing into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years.
On June 12, 1853, John Wesley Hillman was reportedly the first person of European descent to see what he named Deep Blue Lake in Oregon. The lake was renamed at least three times, as Blue Lake, Lake Majesty, and finally Crater Lake.
While having no indigenous fish population, the lake was stocked from 1888 to 1941 with a variety of fish. Several species have formed self-sustaining populations.
The commemorative Oregon State Quarter, which was released by the United States Mint in 2005, features an image of Crater Lake on its reverse.
Crater Lake is located in Klamath County, approximately 97 km northwest of the county seat of Klamath Falls, and about 130 km northeast of the city of Medford. The lake is 8 by 10 km across with an average depth of 350 m. Its maximum depth has been measured at 594 m, which fluctuates slightly as the weather changes. On the basis of maximum depth, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States, the second deepest in North America, after Great Slave Lake in Canada. The caldera rim of Crater Lake ranges in elevation from 2,100 to 2,400 m. Due to several unique factors, most prominently that it has no inlets or tributaries, the waters of Crater Lake are some of the purest in terms of the absence of pollutants in North America.
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