Craters of the Moon National Monument
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is in Sanke River Plain of Idaho in the United States.
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a vast ocean of lava flows with scattered islands of cinder cones and sagebrush. Starting 15,000 years ago, the landscape was created by molten b
The area was designated the Craters of the Moon Wilderness in 1970 by Congress. This was the fisrt such type of designation within the National Park Service.
Cinder cones, craters, and myriad volcanic formations line the fissures, or Great Rift, for some sixty miles from north to south, and rise above a surface swirling with frozen eddies and cascading blocks of lava foam.
Flora and fauna
Searing lava flows that initially destroyed everything in their path today protect the last refuges of intact sagebrush steppe communities on the Snake River Plain. These islands of vegetation, known as kipukas, provide important examples of what is "natural".