Moon Craters in Idaho?

Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve is a very unique place! 

You don’t have to use a rocket ship to get there either.

 

The few non-Indians who visited the area in the 19^th century started local legends that the place looked like the surface of the Moon. 

Geologist Harold T. Stearns coined the name "Craters of the Moon" in 1923 while trying to convince the National Park Service to recommend protection of the area in a national monument.

The Monument and Preserve encompass three major lava fields and about 400 square miles of sagebrush steppe grasslands to cover a total area of 1,117 square miles.

Three lava fields lie along the Great Rift of Idaho in the Snake River Plain. 

It includes some of the best examples of open rift cracks in the world, including the deepest known on Earth at 800 feet.

There are more than 25 volcanic cones, including outstanding examples of spatter cones and 60 distinct solidified lava flows.

There are excellent examples of almost every variety of basaltic lava, as well as tree molds (cavities left by lava-incinerated trees), lava tubes (a type of cave), and many other volcanic features.

A spatter cone. Hot lava is spewed out the top and spatters all around
instead of oozing out and down the sides.

Looking down the center hole of the spatter cone named "snow cone"
Can you guess why they call it that?

A spot where lava oozed up and hardened in a big lump.

Trees grown up in the lava where dust & soil accumulate.
Can you guess why they don't survive there?

I'm glad I wasn't standing there 2,000 years ago!

Lava oozed until it hardened,.

The edge of a lava flow.

Lava fields are not very pleasant. They have sharp corners which cut and scrape. But not all lave makes it to the surface like Craters of the Moon. In the next post we'll visit a place where lava that hardened in the earth and was then exposed by erosion to make a City of Rocks. People love to embrace those rocks as they climb up them.