NASA Captures Yin-Yang Crater On Turkey’s Mount Nemrut

May 16, 2024

NASA’s International Space Station recently took a unique picture of a strange hole on Mount Nemrut in Turkey, which is a dormant stratovolcano. As seen in the picture, the crater was split in half, making it look like the Chinese yin-yang sign.

Formation of the Unusual Crater

The height of Mount Nemrut is 9,672 feet (2,948 meters), and it is where the Eurasian and Arabian tectonic plates meet. The volcano erupted last time it was very active in 1650, creating a big caldera that is 5.3 miles (8.5 km) across and almost 2,000 feet (610 m) deep. A study done in 2012 found that this caldera was mostly made by a single big eruption about 250,000 years ago.

Solidified Lava and Crater Lake:

The crater’s eastern half had smaller blasts that caused lava flows to solidify on one side. Along time, water filled up the other side of the caldera, making a lake in the vent. This mountain’s stark difference between the two sides is most clear when snow covers it, making it look like the yin-yang symbol.

Creation of Lake Van:

The huge eruption also made a big lava flow that blocked a river and formed Lake Van, which is Turkey’s biggest lake, on the eastern side of the mountain.

About Lake Van:

The largest lake in Turkey was created on the eastern side of Mount Nemrut when a big lava flow from a huge eruption about 250,000 years ago blocked a river. The eruptions of Mount Nemrut are directly linked to the formation of the lake.

What is a Yin-Yang Symbol?

A Chinese philosophical idea that shows how different forces are related and can exist at the same time. When it snows, this sign looks like the strange crater on Mount Nemrut, which has two separate halves of solidified lava and a crater lake.

Some Facts about NASA

NASA began operations on October 1, 1958, after being set up on July 29, 1958.
By the end of the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy wanted NASA to have sent a person to the moon. During the Apollo 11 flight on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon.
An estimated 2200 animals, such as pigs, monkeys, rats, rabbits, spiders, and insects, have been sent into space by NASA.

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