@thespartanmk1 First off, your educated and mature comment is a breath of fresh air from the adolescent, youtube-like comments here, since I was hoping other geologist nerds might chime in on this comment page like you.

I didn't think of that caldera but it does make a lot of sense. And to pull from the Yellowstone analogy, the hotspot's eruption seems ultimately fated someday -- but like today's inquires, when and how big it will be is still a foreboding mystery. Like Vvardenfell before, most of the Skyrim region could be a wasteland if the eruption is as big as it's potential holds.

The other observation I had while playing was great appreciation for the developers detail in modeling much of the land after Artic/Subartic Circle regions and the very visual effect glaciation has had on the land. Winterhold, pockmarked with kettle lakes and short brownish yellow molds, mirrors rocky plains and rolling hills of Iceland and the Scottish Highlands where as giant broken up rock, crevasses and rifts of irregular land opening way for waterways toward the North Sea model after Patagonia and North shores stretching from Norway to Siberia. And finally in The Pale region, which is literally a beautiful classic Fjord, opening way by giant glaciers slowly snaking their way, scratching striations while receding toward the sea.

I might be wrong with these observations but the educated designers seemed to be on point with making this highland very believable and therefore more immersive in this way.