Big Southern Butte's Prominence on Snake River Plain The Snake River Plain is a geological feature of (primarily) the American state of Idaho. It stretches about 400 miles (640 km) westward from northwest of the state of Wyoming to the Idaho-Oregon border. The plain is a wide flat bow-shaped depression, and covers about a quarter of Idaho. Three major buttes dot the plain east of Arco, the largest being Big Southern Butte. Photo taken by Daniel Mayer and released under terms of the GNU FDL. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Photo taken by Daniel Mayer and released under terms of the GNU FDL. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
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A mile is a unit of length, usually used to measure distance, in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, United States customary units and Norwegian/Swedish mil. ...
km redirects here. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Cheyenne Largest city Cheyenne Area Ranked 10th - Total 97,818 sq mi (253,348 km²) - Width 280 miles (450 km) - Length 360 miles (580 km) - % water 0. ...
Official language(s) (none)[1] Capital Salem Largest city Portland Area Ranked 9th - Total 98,466 sq mi (255,026 km²) - Width 260 miles (420 km) - Length 360 miles (580 km) - % water 2. ...
Butte near Sedona, Arizona A butte is an isolated hill with steep sides and a small flat top. ...
Arco, Idaho Arco is a city located in Butte County, Idaho. ...
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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. The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) is an 890 square mile (2,300 km²) complex located in the Idaho desert between the towns of Arco and Idaho Falls. ...
Geology
 Snake River Plain Across Southern Idaho The Snake River Plain can be divided into three sections: western, central, and eastern. The western Snake River Plain is a large tectonic graben 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 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. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 549 pixelsFull resolution (1063 × 730 pixel, file size: 359 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Snake River Plain Across Southern Idaho I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 549 pixelsFull resolution (1063 × 730 pixel, file size: 359 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Snake River Plain Across Southern Idaho I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ...
Perrine Bridge spanning the Snake River Canyon at Twin Falls, Idaho The Snake River is a river in the western part of the United States. ...
In geography, a plain is a large area of land with relatively low relief. ...
USGS image A graben is a depressed block of land bordered by parallel faults. ...
 Location of Yellowstone Hotspot in Millions of Years Ago The eastern Snake River plain traces the path of the North American plate over a geologic hot spot, now centered in Yellowstone National Park. 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 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 famous Hagerman fossil beds. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 549 pixelsFull resolution (1063 × 730 pixel, file size: 357 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Location of Yellowstone Hotspot in Millions of Years Ago I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 549 pixelsFull resolution (1063 × 730 pixel, file size: 357 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Location of Yellowstone Hotspot in Millions of Years Ago I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ...
The North American plate, shown in brown The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Cherskiy Range in East Siberia. ...
In geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earths surface that has experienced active volcanism for a long period of time. ...
Yellowstone National Park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest intact ecosystem in the Earths northern temperate zone. ...
Island Park and Yellowstone Calderas formed as the result of enormous rhyolite ignimbrite eruptions, with single eruptions producing up to 2500 cubic km of ash. 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. The Island Park Caldera is a large caldera located in eastern Idaho just to the southwest of the Yellowstone Caldera. ...
The Yellowstone Caldera is a volcanic caldera in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. ...
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a U.S. National Monument and United States Preserve located in the Snake River Plain in central Idaho near Arco, Idaho. ...
Effects on Climate
The Snake River Plain has a significant effect on the climate of Yellowstone National Park and the adjacent areas to the south and west of Yellowstone. As the Yellowstone hotspot burned its way across southern Idaho, it left a 70 mile wide moisture channel though the Rocky Mountains. This channel is in line with the gap between the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada (US). The result is a moisture channel extending from the Pacific Ocean to Yellowstone. Moisture from the Pacific Ocean streams on shore 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 with no high plateaus nor mountain ranges to impede its progress. It finally encounters upslope conditions at the head of the Snake River Valley near Ashton, Idaho, at the Teton Range east of Driggs, Idaho, and at the Yellowstone Plateau of Yellowstone National Park where the channeled moisture precipitates out as rain and snow. The result is a localized climate on the eastern edge of the Rockies that is akin to a climate on the west slope of the Cascades or the northern Sierra. The head of the Snake River Valley, the Tetons, and the Yellowstone Plateau 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. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 728 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 843 pixel, file size: 431 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I created this image. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 728 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 843 pixel, file size: 431 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I created this image. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 574 pixelsFull resolution (1261 × 904 pixel, file size: 278 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I created this image. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 574 pixelsFull resolution (1261 × 904 pixel, file size: 278 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I created this image. ...
Yellowstone National Park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest intact ecosystem in the Earths northern temperate zone. ...
The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a broad mountain range in western North America. ...
Mount Jefferson in Oregon. ...
This article is about the mountain range in the Western United States. ...
The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a broad mountain range in western North America. ...
Ashton is a city in Fremont County, Idaho, United States. ...
The Teton Range The Teton Range is a small but dramatic mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. ...
Driggs is a city located in Teton County, Idaho. ...
The Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field developed through three volcanic cycles spanning two million years that included some of the worlds largest known eruptions. ...
The Teton Range The Teton Range is a small but dramatic mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. ...
The Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field developed through three volcanic cycles spanning two million years that included some of the worlds largest known eruptions. ...
See also There are two rivers in Idaho named Lost, the Big Lost River and the Little Lost River. ...
Perrine Bridge spanning the Snake River Canyon at Twin Falls, Idaho The Snake River is a river in the western part of the United States. ...
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