caldera

A stone-cold cauldron

A stone-cold cauldron

At some point in the distant past, planetary nausea triggered a spew of subterranean chunder. The blow was horrific enough to empty a mountain of structural support, causing it to collapse into its own throat.

On the shira

On the shira

We trudged up one more rise. At the crest, the landscape flattened. It was the collapsed floor of an ancient volcano.