NGORONGORO CRATER

The place called the Ngorongoro Crater really should be called a caldra, not a crater, but it commomly is referred to by the latter.   It was formed by the collapse of a volcano into itself after its last violent eruption.  It left a caldera 12.1 miles across (19.2 km), the largest unflooded and unbroken one in the world.  It has the same sort of geologic history as Crater Lake in Oregon, except that one IS flooded.  The crater  comprises about 175 square miles (304 sq km) of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area's of 4760 sq mi (8262 sq km).  The conservation area ranges in altitude from 1775' to 6250' (1020m to 3587m).  {Elevation of the crater bottom and rim aren't clear right now.  Edge is 610m deep.}        The crater rim ranges from nearly tropical jungle on its southeast rim where the major monsoon rains land to fairly dry on the northwest slopes.  Water availability varies greatly around the crater floor, experiencing substantial runoff during the rainy seasons,; remaining water arrives as groundwater to several substantial springs.  There are severla marshy areas in the bottom..  The lowest area accumulates salts in the form of sodium bicarbonate, which leads to a lake with a very high soda content by the end of the dry seasons.  Much of the crater floor is covered with grasses, but other places support small forests.     The wildlife is very diverse, ranging from large to small for both carnivors and herbivores.  Lions and hyenas are two of the major large carnivors.   SEQUENCE OF IMAGES OF FROM THE NGORONGORO CRATER Related pages: ♦          Farm House ♦          Animals ♦          Return to the main navigation page