Wizard Island is a volcanic

cinder cone A cinder cone or scoria cone is a steep, volcanic cone, conical landform of loose pyroclastic rock, pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic ash, clinkers, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are forme ...

which forms an island at the west end of Crater Lake in

Crater Lake National Park Crater Lake National Park is a national park of the United States located in southern Oregon. Established in 1902, Crater Lake is the fifth-oldest national park in the United States and the only national park in Oregon. The park encompasses t ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. The top of the island reaches above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

, about above the average surface of the lake. The cone is capped by a

volcanic crater A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During volcanic eruptions, molten magma and volcanic gases rise from an ...

about wide and deep. The crater was named the "Witches Cauldron" by William Gladstone Steel in 1885, who also gave Wizard Island its name at the same time. The land area of the island is .

Formation

Wizard Island was created after Mount Mazama, a large

complex volcano A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano or a volcanic complex, is a mixed landform consisting of related volcanic centers and their associated lava flows and pyroclastic rock. They may form due to changes in eruptive habit or ...

, erupted violently approximately 7,700 years ago, forming its

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

which now contains Crater Lake. Following the cataclysmic caldera-forming eruption, which left a hole about deep where the mountain had once stood, a series of smaller eruptions over the next several hundred years formed several cinder cones on the caldera floor. The highest of these cones, the only one to rise above the current lake level, is Wizard Island, which rises over above the lowest point on the caldera floor and the deepest point in the lake. Another large cinder cone, Merriam Cone, is in the northeast part of the lake. Although Merriam Cone rises about above the caldera floor, its summit is still below the average lake level. Its surface features and lack of a crater indicate that Merriam Cone formed under water.

Access

Current public access to Wizard Island is available only during the summer months when boat tours on Crater Lake are in operation. The tours depart from Cleetwood Cove at the north end of the lake, and circle the lake in the counterclockwise direction, stopping at a dock at Governors Bay on the south side of Wizard Island. Passengers on boat trips early in the day may choose to disembark on the island, but must be prepared to spend the entire day on the island if subsequent boats are too full to take on additional passengers. Those on late afternoon boat trips are not permitted to disembark. A final boat is dispatched at the end of each day to pick up any stragglers since overnight camping is not permitted on the island. Two hiking trails are available on Wizard Island, one of which switchbacks up the flanks of the cone and circles the crater on top while the other trail meanders from the dock towards the western end of the island. Panorama from rim of crater of Wizard Island

Panorama from rim of crater of Wizard Island

Notes

References

External links

USGS Crater Lake Data Clearinghouse

(National Park Service)

(NPS concessionaire site) {{authority control Cascade Range Cascade Volcanoes Cinder cones of the United States Volcanoes of Oregon Volcanoes of Klamath County, Oregon Subduction volcanoes Lake islands of Oregon Crater Lake National Park Uninhabited islands of Oregon Volcanic islands Crater Lake (Oregon) Holocene cinder cones