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Volcanic Lakes

A large amount of magma bursts forth and piles up around the crater, forming the towering conical  mountain. In the crater, because a large amount of pumice  (very light) is erupted and the volatile material dissipate, which causes the cervix subsiding and forms the funnel-form of low-lying land. Later, water is accumulated and forms the volcanic lake.

The forming process  of a type of tectonic lakes-the rift lake is:

  1. The calm earth and underground magma activity
  2. Underground magma moves about, outspreads, and rises to the ground
  3. Underground magma erupts, and forms the volcano
  4. The volcano erupts, and breaks forth a great deal of magma, volcanic ash and gas. Magma flows around the crater and forms the lava flow (basalt flow). A large amount of light pumices  in the crater gush out and a lot of volatile material dissipates. The cervix subsides and forms the funnel-form of low-lying land, namely the crater.
  5. The crater stores water gradually (precipitation, snow melting, and groundwater replenishment, etc.),  and forms the volcanic lake.

In China, volcanic lakes are distributed in a very large range,except the volcanic lakes in the Changbai Mountain, and there is also a volcanic lake on Aoneizhu'er Volcano of the east foot of Daxing'an Mountain range.

Nangelaqiu volcanic lake, in the Wudalianchi Volcano Group in Dedu County, is a seasonal crater lake. Its lake water is shallow, and is covered with the liver moss vegetation.

Dayingshan Crater Lake in the Tengchong district of Yunnan Province is destroyed due to a second eruption of the volcano.

On Haotian Temple Volcano in Datong of Shanxi Province, originally there was a lake. According to the recordation of Li Daoyuan, a famous geographer in Northern Wei Dynasty, the lake is extremely deep and has a high water temperature, with a width of over 100 meters from south to north, and a width of over three meters from east to west. Later during the Wanli reign period in the Ming Dynasty, the lake was filled and leveled up, and disappeared.

There are two crater lakes respectively in Huguangyan, near Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province and Xuwen County in Leizhou Peninsula.

There also lie a volcano and crater lake respectively at the tortoise head and tortoise tail of Tortoise Island, Yilan Plain in Taiwan Province.

Crater Lake has a unique form, and it looks like a taper-form mountain far away. High and steep mountain peaks generally surround the lake, and the mountain bank (namely the lake bank) is precipitous. The lake water is deep and dark blue, and in the lake region there often accompany numerous hot springs.

The typical volcanic lake is Changbaishan Tianchi.

Because the snow on the mountain exists perennially, the grass and trees don't grow here, and it looks all in white, so it is named Changbai Mountain. It has gone through numerous volcanic movement and long geological history, accompanying lots of hot springs and fumaroles, and sending out underground heat energy.

Mountain Baitou is an enormous volcanic cone, towering on the ground composed of basalt. There erect 16 mountain peaks around Tianchi (Crater lake) on the top of the volcano. The highest peak is Baitou peak, with a height of 2749m. There are also peaks like Baiyun, Qingshi, Tianwen, Baiyan, Luming, and Longmen, all with an elevation above 2500m.

Tianchi is a crater on Baitoushan Volcano, and is shaped like an enormous funnel. It accumulates water gradually, and forms a huge crater lake. Tianchi is oval in shape, with a length of 4.85km from north to south, and a width of 3.35km from east to west. The area of the lake nearly reaches 10km2 and the lake strandline 13000m. The average depth of lake water is 204.0m, with a maximum depth of 373.0m. The total water storage amounts to 20.04x108m3.

The water of  Tianchi is replenished by  natural precipitation and the leakage around the mountains. The temperature is very low perennially, generally below 10C. In the water there lack aquatic living beings. The lake water is extremely clear. In a sunny and windless weather, people stand on the lakeside and overlook the lake downwards, and can see the green water like a piece of mirror, which reflect the inverted image of the hills and mountains around and white clouds in the sky. At that time, you seem to enter the fairyland, and that feeling is beyond your description.

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