Bainbridge Rocks Crater, The Galapagos

Bainbridge Crater is situated south of Santiago Island on the largest islet in the Bainbridge Rocks. Bainbridge Crater Lagoon is a 3 m-deep hypersaline maar lake located in a 200 m diameter circular littoral eruption cone. The Bainbridge Rocks are a set of small islets in the central part of the archipelago. They are tuff cones, composed of compacted volcanic ash. Sea water had permeated the walls of this eroded cone, forming a salt-water lagoon It is also ideally situated to provide a long-term record of past events of El Nińo, which is a term used for the unusual warming of normally cool near-surface waters off the west coast of South America.