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, 2008]]

Deriba Crater
Deriba Crater

File:Deriba Caldera.jpgDeriba Crater is at the highest point of Jebel Marra at an elevation of 3,042 m , in Darfur in the western part of Sudan. It is between 5km and 8km in diameter across the outer crater....
 is at the highest point of Jebel Marra at an elevation of 3,042 m (9,980 ft), in Darfur
Darfur

Darfur is a region in Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by History of the Anglo-Egyptian co-dominium....
 in the western part of Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
. It is between 5km and 8km in diameter across the outer crater. The inner crater is filled by a crater lake
Crater Lake

Crater Lake is a caldera lake located 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 Marra Mountains are part of a large geologic feature known as the Darfur Dome
Darfur Dome

The Darfur Dome or Darfur Volcanic Province is an area about 100x400 km in area in Western Sudan, the result of a volcanic plume which created its best-known and central feature, Deriba Crater....
. The dome appears to be the result of a mantle plume
Mantle plume

A mantle plume is an upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the Earth's mantle . As the heads of mantle plumes can partly melt when they reach shallow depths, they are thought to be the cause of volcano centers known as Hotspot and probably also to have caused flood basalts....
, which is a fixed “hotspot” in the Earth’s mantle (the layer of Earth below the crust).






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, 2008]]

Deriba Crater
Deriba Crater

File:Deriba Caldera.jpgDeriba Crater is at the highest point of Jebel Marra at an elevation of 3,042 m , in Darfur in the western part of Sudan. It is between 5km and 8km in diameter across the outer crater....
 is at the highest point of Jebel Marra at an elevation of 3,042 m (9,980 ft), in Darfur
Darfur

Darfur is a region in Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by History of the Anglo-Egyptian co-dominium....
 in the western part of Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
. It is between 5km and 8km in diameter across the outer crater. The inner crater is filled by a crater lake
Crater Lake

Crater Lake is a caldera lake located 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 Marra Mountains are part of a large geologic feature known as the Darfur Dome
Darfur Dome

The Darfur Dome or Darfur Volcanic Province is an area about 100x400 km in area in Western Sudan, the result of a volcanic plume which created its best-known and central feature, Deriba Crater....
. The dome appears to be the result of a mantle plume
Mantle plume

A mantle plume is an upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the Earth's mantle . As the heads of mantle plumes can partly melt when they reach shallow depths, they are thought to be the cause of volcano centers known as Hotspot and probably also to have caused flood basalts....
, which is a fixed “hotspot” in the Earth’s mantle (the layer of Earth below the crust). The mantle plume heated the crust from below, leading to uplift of the crust and providing a magma
Magma

Magma is molten Rock that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and may also exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and gas bubbles....
 source for the extensive volcanism observed in the region. The 5-kilometer-wide Deriba Caldera was formed by explosive eruption of the Jebel Marra Volcano approximately 3,500 years ago. The volcano is considered dormant, rather than extinct, as hot springs and fumaroles (gas and steam vents) are still present.

The caldera
Caldera

A caldera is a cauldron-like volcano feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption such as the one at Yellowstone National Park....
 has the classic circular shape: the depression formed as overlying rock and soil collapsed into the magma chamber after it was emptied by powerful eruptions. Shadows in this astronaut photograph throw the steep southern wall of the outer crater into sharp relief. Following the formation of the main outer crater, a second inner crater (image center) formed, most likely due to later uplift and eruption of fresh magma moving towards the surface. This inner crater is filled with water.

Because the walls of the inner crater are higher than the adjacent caldera floor, precipitation flowing inwards from the outer crater walls does not enter the inner crater lake
Crater Lake

Crater Lake is a caldera lake located 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....
. White stream bed sediments (image center) show the water pathway around the inner crater to a second lake located along the northeast wall of the outer crater. While Jebel Marra is high enough (3,042 meters) to have a temperate climate and high precipitation, these lakes may be fed by hot springs as well as rainwater. The inner crater lake has a mottled appearance caused by sunglint
Sunglint

Sunglint is a phenomenon that occurs when the sun reflects off the surface of the ocean at the same angle that a satellite sensor is viewing the surface....
 -- light reflected off a roughened water surface back towards the astronaut onboard the International Space Station
International Space Station

The International Space Station is a research facility Assembly of the International Space Station in outer space. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998, and is scheduled to be complete by 2011, with operations continuing until around 2015....
.

External links

  • Location map (small scale) :
  • Satellite image (large scale) :
  • Oblique aerial photo on page 27 (large scale) :
  • at NASA Earth Observatory
    NASA Earth Observatory

    The NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing organization of the NASA of the United States .It is the principal source of free satellite imagery and other scientific information about Earth for consumption by the general public....