What are caldera collapses?

A caldera collapse is when a big mountain explodes and then falls in on itself, making a giant hole.

Imagine you have a really tall cookie jar full of cookies, it’s like a volcano. When the cookies get too hot inside, they explode out of the jar with a boom! That’s like an eruption. But after all those cookies are gone, the sides of the jar can’t hold up anymore and just crash down, making a big empty space in the middle, that’s the caldera collapse.

After the collapse, the hole might fill up with water or even more lava, creating a lake or new mountains nearby. Sometimes, people live near these holes, and they can feel the ground shake when it happens, kind of like being at the bottom of a giant cookie jar that just had its lid blown off!

If you’ve ever seen a big bubble pop on a lake, imagine that but way bigger, that’s what a caldera collapse looks like!