Volcanodle
Puzzle #9 was Zavaritzki Caldera.
The Zavaritzki volcano on Simushir Island in the central Kuril Islands contains three nested calderas 10, 8, and 3 km in diameter. The steep-walled youngest caldera was formed during the Holocene and includes several young cones and lava domes near the margins of Biryuzovoe Lake. The current lake surface is at ~40 m elevation with the bottom ~30 m below sea level, but lacustrine sediments overlying pumice deposits indicate that the surface of an earlier caldera lake lay at 200 m above sea level.
Read about it at the Global Volcanism Program →
Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution
What the record says
Puzzle 9 ran on 18 Jul 2026 and the answer was Zavaritzki Caldera, played with 6 guesses against 8 columns. On the record: Country - Russia; Region - Northwestern Pacific Volcanic Regions; Type - caldera; Tectonic setting - subduction; Elevation - 500-1500; Last eruption - 20th-century; Rock type - andesite; Historically observed - observed.
Beyond the grid the record adds Largest recorded eruption - VEI 3; Holocene eruptions recorded - 2 eruptions.
Volcanodle builds its record from Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution (Venzke, E. (ed.), Volcanoes of the World, volcano.si.edu). The description above comes from the same place the game credits on every reveal: A verbatim excerpt of the volcano's GVP Geological Summary. The puzzle itself is still playable in the archive, and every answer that has been and gone is listed on the past-answers page.
How it scored
- Country
- Russia
- Region
- Northwestern Pacific Volcanic Regions
- Type
- caldera
- Tectonic setting
- subduction
- Elevation
- 500-1500
- Last eruption
- 20th-century
- Rock type
- andesite
- Historically observed
- observed
Also on the record
- Largest recorded eruption
- VEI 3
- Holocene eruptions recorded
- 2 eruptions