Scientists Went To The Bottom Of Crater Lake — What They Found Down There Stunned Everyone

On August 8, 1988, oceanographer Jack Dymond rode a one-person submersible to the floor of Crater Lake, Oregon, and became the first person to see the bottom of the deepest lake in the United States. Over two summers of dives, scientists found bacterial mats 25 degrees warmer than the surrounding water, pools of dense salty water lying on the lake floor, silica spires left by old hot springs, and moss growing 700 feet down. In 2000, a sonar survey mapped the rest: a drowned volcano under Wizard Island, a second cone that never reached the surface, landslides, and the beaches of a lake that was still filling. This video goes through what is at the bottom of Crater Lake and how it was found: the eruption that made the lake, the people who were already living there, the piano-wire soundings of 1886, the geothermal drilling dispute that forced the dives, and what is changing in the lake now. IN THIS VIDEO • The first descent, August 8, 1988 • The postcard, and what it leaves out • Mount Mazama, 7,700 years ago • The Fort Rock sandals and the Klamath account of Llao and Skell • 1886: a half-ton boat and a spool of piano wire • The geothermal leases and the law that ordered the search • Warm bacterial mats, Llao's Bath, underwater streams, silica spires • The Old Man of the Lake • The 2000 sonar map: Wizard Island, Merriam Cone, the 4,800-year-old dome • The 1992 finding: "significant thermal features" • Warming, crayfish, and a lake nobody can reach until 2029 SOURCES National Park Service, Crater Lake (FAQ; Wizard Island; The Old Man of the Lake; Geology) · U.S. Geological Survey (Crater Lake volcano pages; bathymetry and floor; Open-File Reports 97-487 and 00-405; 2016 lake-mixing study) · Nathenson, Bacon & Ramsey, Hydrobiologia (2007) · U.S. Department of the Interior report on thermal features (1992) · Park Science (1989) · Nature Notes from Crater Lake (1996) · Crater Lake Institute archives · Oregon Encyclopedia and University of Oregon (Fort Rock sandals) · Nature (1989) · KOIN (2025) · Bend Bulletin (2023) · High Country News RELATED Crater Lake bottom · Deep Rover Crater Lake · Crater Lake hydrothermal vents · Mount Mazama eruption · Wizard Island · Merriam Cone · Old Man of the Lake · Llao and Skell · Cleetwood Cove Trail closure Depth figures: 1,943 feet (National Park Service) and 1,949 feet (2000 survey). The U.S. Geological Survey ranks Crater Lake's threat potential as Very High; no unrest is reported. #CraterLake #Oregon #Volcano #MountMazama #NationalParks #USGS #DeepestLake #CrisisRadar