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The Snake River Plain is a geologic
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
 feature located primarily within the state of Idaho in the United States of America. It stretches about westward from northwest of the state of Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
 to the Idaho-Oregon
Oregon

Oregon is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The area was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before the arrival of traders, explorers and settlers....
 border. The plain is a wide flat bow-shaped depression, and covers about a quarter of Idaho. Three major butte
Butte

A butte is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small relatively flat top, smaller than mesas, plateaus, and table s. In some regions the word is simply used for any hill....
s dot the plain east of Arco
Arco, Idaho

Arco is a city in Butte County, Idaho, Idaho, United States. The population was 1,026 at the 2000 United States Census. The city is the county seat of Butte County, Idaho....
, the largest being Big Southern Butte
Big Southern Butte

Big Southern Butte is the largest and youngest of three rhyolitic domes formed over a million years near the center of the Eastern Snake River Plain in the U.S....
.

Many of Idaho's major cities are in the Snake River Plain as is much of its agricultural land. Also located within Snake River Plain is the Idaho National Laboratory.

Snake River
Snake River

The Snake River is a major tributary of the Columbia River in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The river's length is , its drainage basin drains , and the average discharge at its mouth is ....
 Plain
Plain

In geography, a plain is an area of landscape with relatively high relief, as well as flat. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or vegetation may be absent in the case of sandy or...
 can be divided into three sections: western, central, and eastern.






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The Snake River Plain is a geologic
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
 feature located primarily within the state of Idaho in the United States of America. It stretches about westward from northwest of the state of Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
 to the Idaho-Oregon
Oregon

Oregon is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The area was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before the arrival of traders, explorers and settlers....
 border. The plain is a wide flat bow-shaped depression, and covers about a quarter of Idaho. Three major butte
Butte

A butte is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small relatively flat top, smaller than mesas, plateaus, and table s. In some regions the word is simply used for any hill....
s dot the plain east of Arco
Arco, Idaho

Arco is a city in Butte County, Idaho, Idaho, United States. The population was 1,026 at the 2000 United States Census. The city is the county seat of Butte County, Idaho....
, the largest being Big Southern Butte
Big Southern Butte

Big Southern Butte is the largest and youngest of three rhyolitic domes formed over a million years near the center of the Eastern Snake River Plain in the U.S....
.

Many of Idaho's major cities are in the Snake River Plain as is much of its agricultural land. Also located within Snake River Plain is the Idaho National Laboratory.

Geology

The Snake River
Snake River

The Snake River is a major tributary of the Columbia River in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The river's length is , its drainage basin drains , and the average discharge at its mouth is ....
 Plain
Plain

In geography, a plain is an area of landscape with relatively high relief, as well as flat. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or vegetation may be absent in the case of sandy or...
 can be divided into three sections: western, central, and eastern. The western Snake River Plain is a large tectonic graben
Graben

A graben is a depression block of land bordered by parallel Fault s. Graben is German language for ditch.A graben is the result of a block of land being downthrown producing a valley with a distinct Escarpment on each side....
 or rift valley filled with several km of lacustrine (lake) sediments; the sediments are underlain by rhyolite and basalt, and overlain by basalt. The western plain began to form around 11-12 Ma
Annum

Annum is one form of the Latin noun meaning year, not a form normally used for derivatives in modern languages: the accusative case Grammatical number of the second declension grammatical gender noun annus , anni ....
 with the eruption of rhyolite lavas and ignimbrites. The western plain is not parallel to North American Plate motion, and lies at a high angle to the central and eastern Snake River Plains. Its morphology
Geomorphology

Geomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them. Geomorphologists seek to understand why landscapes look the way they do: to understand landform history and dynamics, and predict future changes through a combination of field observation, physical experiment, and numerical mathematical model....
 is similar to other volcanic plateau
Volcanic plateau

A volcanic plateau is a plateau produced by volcanic activity. There are two main types: lava plateaus and pyroclastic plateaus....
s such as the Chilcotin Group in south-central British Columbia
British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's Provinces and territories of Canada and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu ....
, Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
. The eastern Snake River plain traces the path of the North American plate
North American Plate

The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia....
 over the Yellowstone hotspot
Yellowstone hotspot

The Yellowstone Hotspot, also referred to as the Snake River Plain-Yellowstone hotspot, is a volcano hotspot responsible for large scale volcanism in Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming, United States....
, now centered in Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress as a national park on March 1, 1872, is located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, though it also extends into Montana and Idaho....
. The eastern plain is a topographic depression that cuts across Basin and Range Mountain structures, more or less parallel to North American plate motion. It is underlain almost entirely by basalt erupted from large shield volcanoes. Beneath the basalts are rhyolite lavas and ignimbrites that erupted as the lithosphere
Lithosphere

File:Plates tect2 en.svgFile:Earth-crust-cutaway-english.svgThe lithosphere is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet....
 passed over the hotspot. The central Snake River plain is similar to the eastern plain, but differs by having thick sections of interbedded lacustrine (lake) and fluvial (stream) sediments, including the Hagerman fossil beds
Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument

Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument near Hagerman, Idaho, contains the largest concentration of Hagerman Horse fossils in North America. The 4,351-acre Monument is internationally significant because it protects the world's richest known fossil deposits from a time period called the late Pliocene epoch, 3.5 million years ago....
.

Island Park
Island Park Caldera

What is commonly called the Island Park Caldera is actually two calderas, one nested inside the other. The older and much larger caldera is the Island Park Caldera with approximate dimensions of 58 miles by 40 miles ....
 and Yellowstone Caldera
Yellowstone Caldera

The Yellowstone Caldera is the volcano caldera in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. The caldera is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, in which the vast majority of the park is contained....
s formed as the result of enormous rhyolite ignimbrite eruptions, with single eruptions producing up to 2500 cubic km of ash. Island Park Caldera, measuring by , may be the largest symmetrical caldera
Caldera

A caldera is a cauldron-like volcano feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption such as the one at Yellowstone National Park....
 in the world . The caldera formed when a dome of magma built up and then drained away. The center of the dome collapsed, leaving a caldera. The rim is visible in this image as a distinct ring of green in the satellite image. Younger volcanoes that erupted after passing over the hotspot covered the plain with young basalt lava flows in places, including Craters of the Moon National Monument.

Effects on Climate

The Snake River Plain has a significant effect on the climate of Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress as a national park on March 1, 1872, is located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, though it also extends into Montana and Idaho....
 and the adjacent areas to the south and west of Yellowstone. As the Yellowstone hotspot burned its way across southern Idaho, it left a wide channel through the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometre from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States....
. This channel is in line with the gap between the Cascade Range
Cascade Range

The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California....
 and the Sierra Nevada. The result is a moisture channel extending from the Pacific Ocean to Yellowstone. Moisture from the Pacific Ocean streams onshore in the form of clouds and humid air. It passes through the gap between the Sierras and Cascades and on into the Snake River Plain where it is channeled through most of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometre from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States....
 with no high plateaus nor mountain ranges to impede its progress. It finally encounters upslope conditions at the head of the Snake River Valley at Ashton, Idaho
Ashton, Idaho

Ashton is a city in Fremont County, Idaho, Idaho, United States. It is part of the Rexburg, Idaho Rexburg micropolitan area. The population was 1,129 at the 2000 United States Census....
 and at Island Park, Idaho
Island Park, Idaho

Island Park is a city in Fremont County, Idaho, Idaho, United States. The city's population was 215 at the United States Census, 2000. The city was incorporated by owners of the many lodges and resorts along U.S....
, at the Teton Range
Teton Range

The Teton Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. A north-south range, it is on the Wyoming side of the state's border with Idaho, just south of Yellowstone National Park....
 east of Driggs, Idaho
Driggs, Idaho

Driggs is a city in Teton County, Idaho, Idaho, United States. It is part of the Jackson, Wyoming, Wyoming-ID Jackson micropolitan area. The population was 1,100 at the United States Census, 2000....
, and at the Yellowstone Plateau
Yellowstone Plateau

The Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field is a geological feature found in the U.S. state of Wyoming.The plateau developed through three volcanic cycles spanning two million years that included some of the world's largest known eruptions....
 of Yellowstone National Park where the channeled moisture precipitates out as rain and snow. The result is a localized climate on the eastern side of the Rockies that is akin to a climate on the west slope of the Cascades or the northern Sierras. The head of the Snake River Valley, the Tetons, and the Yellowstone Plateau
Yellowstone Plateau

The Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field is a geological feature found in the U.S. state of Wyoming.The plateau developed through three volcanic cycles spanning two million years that included some of the world's largest known eruptions....
 receive much more precipitation than other areas of the region and the area is known for being wet, green, having many streams, and having abundant snow in winter.

See also

  • Lost River (Idaho)
    Lost River (Idaho)

    There are two rivers in Idaho named "Lost", the Big Lost River and the Little Lost River. They are often considered separate streams, but both flow into the same depression and become subterranean, feeding the Snake River Plain Aquifer....
  • Snake River
    Snake River

    The Snake River is a major tributary of the Columbia River in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The river's length is , its drainage basin drains , and the average discharge at its mouth is ....
  • Snake River Plain (ecoregion)
    Snake River Plain (ecoregion)

    The Snake River Plain ecoregion is a List of ecoregions in the United States designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S....


External links and references

  • at Digital Atlas of Idaho