This "kipuka" in Craters of the Moon National Monument is an area of undisturbed grassland surrounded by a lava flow.
Published Oct 14, 2009
This lava field includes at least 60 flows ranging from 15,000 to 2,100 years old.
Published Oct 13, 2009
Acquired November 28, 2002, this true-color image shows an arid landscape in eastern Arizona. At the time of the earliest dinosaurs, it was a moist, tropical region near the equator.
Published Oct 4, 2009
Captured on June 27, 2009, this true-color image shows part of the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, where brilliant white gypsum dunes slowly migrate toward the northeast.
Published Jul 12, 2009
Naked summits alternate with forested lowlands in Yosemite Valley in this image acquired on August 18, 2001.
Published May 31, 2009
Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks contain a substantial portion of the Sierra Nevada and some 3,000 ponds and lakes.
Published Mar 22, 2009
State parks had already been established in the region when the U.S. Congress established northern California’s Redwood National Park in 1968.
Published Feb 22, 2009
Soldiers’ National Cemetery, where U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the “Gettysburg Address” in November 1863, appears in this Ikonos satellite image from June 25, 2003.
Published Feb 12, 2009
Three topographic and climatic zones converge in California’s Joshua Tree National Park, enriching the park’s biodiversity. The diverse terrain is shown in this Landsat image from May 28, 2003.
Published Jan 29, 2009
Geologically recent events sculpted the rocks of Glacier National Park into sharp mountain peaks and steep-walled valleys.
Published Aug 21, 2008
Located in southwestern Utah along the western margin of the Colorado Plateau, the park was established in 1919 after roadway improvements allowed access to the Mukuntuweap National Monument.
Published May 26, 2008
This park in Utah encompasses some of the most remote and rugged terrain in the continental United States.
Published Jan 3, 2008
Sixty million years of erosion have exposed folded layers of rock.
Published Oct 3, 2007
No battles were fought here, but it was still one of the most important landmarks of the American Revolution.
Published May 27, 2007
Established in 1975, the park saw fur traders nearly two centuries earlier, and it supported human inhabitants thousands of years before that. Today, almost a third of the park is water, and travel through the park is usually by boat.
Published Oct 1, 2006
Crater Lake is formed from the caldera of Mount Mazama. Part of the Cascades volcanic chain, Mount Mazama sits between the Three Sisters volcanoes to the north and Mount Shasta to the south. The catastrophic eruption of Mount Mazama that occurred approximately 7,700 years ago destroyed the volcano while simultaneously forming the basin for Crater Lake. Eruptive activity continued in the region for perhaps a few hundred years after the major eruption. Evidence of this activity lingers in volcanic rocks, lava flows, and domes beneath the lake surface; the small cone of Wizard Island is the only visible portion of these younger rocks. Although considered a dormant volcano, Crater Lake is part of the United States Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory seismic monitoring network.
Published Sep 18, 2006
President Kennedy designated this area a National Recreation Area in 1963 as a demonstration site to explore how an area with limited value for agricultural or timber harvesting and no major industrial activity could be transformed into an economically productive recreation area.
Published Jul 16, 2006
The park sits at the eastern edge of the Paunsaugant Plateau, and the ridgeline offers stunning views across southern Utah.
Published Jun 25, 2006
Northern Arizona is best known for the Grand Canyon. Less widely known are the hundreds of geologically young volcanoes scattered across the southern portion of the Colorado Plateau at the eastern foothills of the San Francisco Peaks.
Published May 23, 2006
The landscape was formed as wind, water, and earthquakes carved away a 23-million-year-old volcano.
Published May 14, 2006
Over 300 glaciers, about one-third of the glaciers in the Lower 48 states, lie within the park boundaries.
Published May 7, 2006
At 86 meters (282 feet) below sea level, Death Valley, California, is one of the hottest, driest places on the planet.
Published Apr 16, 2006
Canyon de Chelly National Monument was created in 1931 to protect the cultural heritage of the canyon lands of Arizona.
Published Apr 2, 2006
Although nearly a century has passed since its last eruption, signs of volcanic activity are still visible in this false-color image.
Published Jan 29, 2006
The landscape is a recently formed set of basaltic lava flows that creates a foreboding landscape of sharp obsidian, cinder and spatter cones, twisted rivers of solidified rock, pit craters, and a network of caves from lava tubes.
Published Oct 16, 2005
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is a small park that encompasses the steep-walled canyons of the Gunnison River, which drains snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains in western Colorado.
Published Oct 2, 2005
A clear summer day over Washington state provided the International Space Station crew the chance to observe Mt. Rainier—a volcano that overlooks the Seattle metropolitan area and the 2.5 million people who live there. In addition to its presence on the Seattle skyline, Mt. Rainier also looms large among volcanoes in the United States.
Published Sep 26, 2005
The park was created in October 1949 to protect a small area along the banks of the Mississippi River where Native Americans built earthen mounds for millennia.
Published Sep 11, 2005
The most striking feature is Roosevelt Lake, an artificial lake created by the construction of Roosevelt Dam across the Salt River. The National Monument is surrounded by the Tonto National Forest, which includes low plains, desert scrubland, and alpine pine forests.
Published Sep 4, 2005
The park encompasses about 37,000 hectares of the Sonora Desert.
Published Jul 24, 2005
