caldera

The town of St George's, from the vantage point at Fort George. The capital of Grenada, St George's is situated on a small peninsula on the southwestern coast of the island. It has a deep, landlocked harbour, called Carenage, which like Grand Etang Lake in the centre of the island, occupies a volcanic caldera (a large crater formed after the collapse of the original peak).

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.