Classroom lesson · Grand Etang Crater Lake · 🇬🇩 Grenada

Grand Etang Crater Lake

A cool blue lake inside an ancient volcano

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Grand Etang is a beautiful lake that sits inside the crater of an ancient volcano near the centre of Grenada. The word 'étang' comes from French and means 'pond' or 'lake'. At about 530 metres above sea level, the air up here is cooler and misty, very different from the warm beaches below.

Tell me more

Long ago, before anyone lived on Grenada, the volcano erupted and left behind a bowl-shaped crater. Over thousands of years, rainfall filled it up to create the lake we see today. The water is calm and dark, reflecting the thick rainforest that grows right down to the water's edge. Clouds often drift through the trees, making the whole place feel mysterious and magical.

The lake sits inside the Grand Etang National Park, which protects some of Grenada's most important rainforest. Mona monkeys — brought to the Caribbean from West Africa centuries ago — now live wild in these forests, leaping between the trees and sometimes sitting by the roadside to watch visitors. Colourful birds and exotic plants fill every corner of the park.

Hiking trails loop around the lake and deeper into the forest. Some trails lead to high viewpoints where, on clear days, you can see both the Atlantic Ocean on one side of the island and the Caribbean Sea on the other. Standing up there, you get a real sense of how small but beautiful Grenada is — a green jewel sitting between two great oceans.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01A crater lake forms when a volcano stops erupting and rain fills the hollow it left behind. Can you think of other ways that water creates new landscapes over a long time?
  2. 02Grand Etang is very cool and misty while the beaches below are warm and sunny — and they are only a short drive apart. What causes this difference?
  3. 03Mona monkeys were brought from West Africa to the Caribbean a long time ago and have lived wild there ever since. What challenges might an animal face when it moves to a completely new place?
Try this

Classroom activity

Make a model of Grand Etang using air-dry clay or papier-mâché. Shape the volcano cone, press a hollow in the top for the crater, and paint the inside blue for the lake. Add green tissue paper trees around the sides and label the crater, the lake, and the forest.