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El Malpais National Monument and National Conservation Area
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Pahoehoe lava flow in El Malpais National Monument
Show map of New MexicoShow map of the United States
Location	Cibola County, New Mexico, USA
Nearest city	Grants, NM
Coordinates	34°52′38″N 108°03′03″W / 34.87722°N 108.05083°W / 34.87722; -108.05083
Area	114,276 acres (462.46 km)
Established	December 31, 1987 (1987-December-31)
Visitors	105,356 (in 2011)
Governing body	National Park Service
Website	El Malpais National Monument

El Malpais National Monument is a National Monument located in western New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. The name El Malpais is from the Spanish term Malpaís, meaning badlands, due to the extremely barren and dramatic volcanic field that covers much of the park's area.

It is on the Trails of the Ancients Byway, one of the designated New Mexico Scenic Byways. There are many geologic features, including lava tubes and ice caves. There is also abundant wildlife to be encountered year round. Native Americans have used the area for centuries, and it became a National Monument in 1987.

Geography and geology

The lava flows, cinder cones, and other volcanic features of El Malpais are part of the Zuni-Bandera volcanic field, the second largest volcanic field in the Basin and Range Province. This volcanically active area on the southeast margin of the Colorado Plateau is located on the ancient Jemez Lineament, which provides the crustal weakness that recent magmatic intrusions and Cenozoic volcanism are attributed to.

The rugged pahoēhoē and ʻaʻā lava flows of the Zuni-Bandera eruptions (also called the Grants Lava Flows) filled a large basin, created by normal faulting associated with the Rio Grande Rift, between the high mesas of the Acoma Pueblo to the east, Mt. Taylor to the north, and the Zuni Mountain anticline to the northwest. Vents associated with these flows include Bandera Crater, El Calderon, and several other cinder cones; more than a dozen older cinder cones follow a roughly north–south distribution along the Chain of Craters west of the monument.

Features

El Malpais has many lava tubes; two are open to explore (unguided) with a free caving permit, available at NPS-staffed facilities. The two caves currently accessible by permit are Giant Ice in the Big Tubes area, and Lava Bomb in the Hoya de Cibola area. The Junction Bridge lava tube ia also accessible as part of the El Calderon trail.

A nearby scenic overlook at Sandstone Bluffs offers spectacular panoramic views over the monument's lava flows.

Natural history

Some of the oldest Rocky Mountain Douglas-firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii subsp. glauca) on Earth can be found living in El Malpais Monument. In 2020, a new population of hart's-tongue ferns (Asplenium scolopendrium) was discovered inside of a cave with basaltic lava flows in El Malpais, which represents the first confirmed population of the species in the United States or Canada west of the Mississippi; all other known populations of the fern are around the Great Lakes, Alabama, and Tennessee. Genetic analyses and surveys are currently being performed to determine the population's variation and overall health.

El Malpais’ lava flows and associated lava-tubes provide a unique and critical roosting habitat for bats. These underground structures offer stable temperatures, protection, and proximity to limited water resources, making them essential hibernacula for diverse bat species, setting the park apart from others with similar woodlands and water resources. Conservation efforts to preserve these lava-tubes are vital for safeguarding bat populations, especially in light of potential threats like White-nose syndrome. From December 2010 to June 2013, all caves were temporarily closed to recreational use to protect bats from the spread of White Nose Syndrome (WNS) until a permitting process, including visitor screening for WNS, could be implemented. Recent research at El Malpais shows that the bacterial microbiome of bats and the bacterial microbiome in the caves can affect each other, which may provide more insight into the connections between cave environments, defense systems of bats, and WNS.

History

The area around El Malpais was used for resources, settlement, and travel by Oasisamerica cultures, Native Americans, and Spanish colonial and pioneer exploration. Archaeological sites remain in the park. People of the Acoma Pueblo used to utilize the lava tubes that would collect cold air as sanctuary to protect them from the heat above. Some caves hold ice year round, which can be 2,000 years old. The Acoma and Zuni Pueblos forged a trail through El Malpais that connected the Pueblos, a hundred miles apart. Along the trail, ice from the caves would be melted as a water source.

In the 1940s the Malpais lava field was one of the eight candidate sites considered by the Manhattan Project to test detonate the first atomic bomb, the Trinity nuclear test, which did occur to the south at White Sands Proving Ground. The Department of Defense did use the site as a bombing range to train pilots during World War II.

After the war, the Bureau of Land Management became the administrator of the area. In 1987, President Reagan signed Pub. L. 100–225 that created El Malpais National Monument and designated it a unit of the National Park Service. It is jointly managed with the nearby El Morro National Monument. The Acoma Pueblo did not want the United States to make the area a National Monument. They asked for their land back, as it was used for spiritual purposes. Congress did not agree and went ahead with the Monument, while allowing sections to be closed at the Pueblos' request for spiritual use.

Flora and fauna

Over 190 species of birds can be seen in El Malpais, occupying various habitats the area offers. Raptors including red-tailed hawks, American kestrels, peregrine falcons, great horned owls, and wester screech-owls may be seen. The region also has significant reptile and amphibian biodiversity, including bullsnakes that mimic rattlesnakes, horned lizards that can double their size in self defense, venomous rattlesnakes, collared lizards that warm up in the sun, and canyon treefrogs that lay their eggs in the tinajas. Mammals found in the area include black bears, coyotes, elk, and bats. Many moths and butterflies can also be encountered in the park, including Western Tiger and Black Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak, Mexican Tiger Moth, and Giant Leopard Moth.

Conifers such as piñon, alligator juniper, oneseed juniper, Rocky Mountain juniper, ponderosa pine, quaking aspen, and Douglas fir are found here. Shrubs include sagebrush, rabbitbrush, mountain mahogany, Apache plume, and more. Many wildflowers, such as paintbrush, evening primrose, and desert globemallow can be seen. Prickly pear, claret cup, and cane cholla cacti can be found as well. Cinder phacelia is a flowering plant that can only be found in El Malpais or in Sunset Crater National Monument. Moss and other bryophyte gardens also form in El Malpais, as a result of ice melting and dripping water along humid, cool, sunlit cave entrances. 95 mosses and 15 liverworts have been documented, included species that aren't usually found in New Mexico's climate. Four vegetative communities are identified in the area, competing for space and resources. They are Grass-Shrub, Piñon-Juniper, Ponderosa Pine, and Lava Complex.

Protection and management

The U.S. National Park Service protects, manages, and interprets El Malpais National Monument. El Malpais Visitor Center (formerly The Northwest New Mexico Visitor Center) is just south of Exit 85 off I-40 in Grants, New Mexico.

The adjacent El Malpais National Conservation Area is protected and managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. They staff the El Malpais National Conservation Area Ranger Station 8 miles down State Highway 117 south of I-40 Exit 89.

The Cibola National Forest conserves large natural areas, wildlife, and habitats in the surrounding region as well.

In literature

The second portion of the 1932 book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley takes place on the "savage reservation", which is located on land encompassing the park's area.

The malpais is the setting for a western story, "Flint" (November, 1960) by Louis L'Amour. Flint is a successful business man who thinks he is dying of cancer and returns to a hidden campsite within the malpais he had learned of in his youth.

A scene in Cormac McCarthy's 1985 novel Blood Meridian takes place on the malpais.

See also

• List of national monuments of the United States

References

1. "Listing of acreage – December 31, 2011" (XLSX). Land Resource Division, National Park Service. Retrieved 2012-05-13. (National Park Service Acreage Reports)
2. "NPS Annual Recreation Visits Report". National Park Service. Retrieved 2012-05-13.
3. ^ "Zuni-Bandera". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
4. Trail of the Ancients. Archived August 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine New Mexico Tourism Department. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
5. Channer, Michael A.; Ricketts, Jason W.; Zimmerer, Matthew; Heizler, Matthew; Karlstrom, Karl E. (1 October 2015). "Surface uplift above the Jemez mantle anomaly in the past 4 Ma based on 40Ar/39Ar dated paleoprofiles of the Rio San Jose, New Mexico, USA". Geosphere. 11 (5): 1384–1400. Bibcode:2015Geosp..11.1384C. doi:10.1130/GES01145.1.
6. Maxwell, C.H. (1986). "Geologic map of the El Malpais Lava field and surrounding areas, Cibola County, New Mexico". U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map. I-1595. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
7. "Lava Tube Caving". El Malpais National Monument. National Park Service. 2024-04-30. Retrieved 2024-07-10.
8. "Sandstone Bluffs". El Malpais National Monument. National Park Service. 2013-01-03. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
9. "Nature & Science". El Malpais National Monument. National Park Service. 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
10. New Mexico Rare Plant Technical Council (7 November 2019). "Rare Plans in the News". New Mexico Rare Plants. University of New Mexico. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
11. Valdez, E. W., Geological Survey (U.S.), & United States. National Park Service. (2012). Surveillance for white-nose syndrome in the bat community at el malpais national monument, new mexico, 2011 (Ser. Open-file report, 2012-1097). U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
12. ^ "El Malpais Visitors Center". National Park Service. 2008-10-21. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
13. Hathaway, Jennifer J. M.; Salazar-Hamm, Paris S.; Caimi, Nicole A.; Natvig, Donald O.; Buecher, Debbie C.; Northup, Diana E. (2024-01-02). "Comparison of Fungal and Bacterial Microbiomes of Bats and Their Cave Roosting Environments at El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico, USA". Geomicrobiology Journal. 41 (1): 82–97. Bibcode:2024GmbJ...41...82H. doi:10.1080/01490451.2023.2283427. ISSN 0149-0451. S2CID 265474407.
14. ^ "History & Culture". El Malpais National Monument. National Park Service. 2012-12-23. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
15. Lenihan, Daniel J; Bradford, James E (August 1993). "Ancient Indians Sought Shadows and Ice Caves". Natural History. Vol. 102, no. 8. p. 56.
16. "Trinity Atomic Web Site". Walker, Gregory. Archived from the original on 2010-04-20. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
17. Mangum, Neil C. (1990). "In the land of frozen fires: A history of occupation in El Malpais country" (PDF). Southwest Cultural Resources Center Professional Paper. 32. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
18. Hooker, Ann M. (1994). "American Indian Sacred Sites on Federal Public Lands: Resolving Conflicts between Religious Use and Multiple Use at El Malpais National Monument". American Indian Law Review. 19 (1): 133–158. ISSN 0094-002X. JSTOR 20068761.
19. National Park Service (Jan 4, 2021). "Birds". National Park Service. Retrieved Feb 26, 2024.
20. National Park Service (Dec 13, 2013). "Reptiles and Amphibians". National Park Service. Retrieved Feb 26, 2024.
21. National Park Service (Dec 13, 2020). "Mammals". National Park Service. Retrieved Feb 26, 2024.
22. National Park Service (Feb 24, 2015). "Butterflies". National Park Service. Retrieved Feb 26, 2024.
23. ^ The El Malpais plan : a stand-alone management plan for El Malpais National Conservation area and adjoining lands. Bureau of Land Management Library. Albuquerque, N.M. : U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Albuquerque Field Office. 2001.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
24. National Park Service (Dec 11, 2020). "Plants". National Park Service. Retrieved Feb 26, 2024.
25. Kleinman, Russ; Blisard, Karen S.; Allred, Kelly W.; Romig, Kirsten; Baumann, Laura (September 2021). "Bryophytes of El Malpais National Monument". Evansia. 38 (3): 116–129. doi:10.1639/0747-9859-38.3.116. ISSN 0747-9859. S2CID 238219858.
26. "El Malpais National Conservation Area". Bureau of Land Management. 2007-07-11. Archived from the original on 2008-10-14. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
27. "Sites Along Highway 117". National Park Service. 2008-10-21. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
28. Cibola National Forest and Grasslands. "About the Forest". US Forest Service.
29. Meckier, Jerome (2002). "Aldous Huxley's Americanization of the "Brave New World"" (PDF). Twentieth Century American Literature. 48 (4): 439. JSTOR 3176042. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
30. L'Amour, Louis (2005). Flint (Bantam reissue ed.). New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-89915-3. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
31. Vann, David (13 November 2009). "American inferno". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2022.

Further reading

• Mabery, Marilyn (1987). The Volcanic Eruptions of El Malpais: A Guide to the Volcanic History and Formations of El Malpais National Monument. Ancient City Press. p. 83. ISBN 1-58096-007-3.

External links

• Official website at the National Park Service
• BLM: El Malpais National Conservation Area website
• Offbeat New Mexico – El Malpais
• TopoQuest USGS Quad Map

• IUCN Category V
• Malpaíses (landform)
• National Park Service national monuments in New Mexico
• Caves of New Mexico
• Lava tubes
• Natural arches of New Mexico
• Volcanic fields of New Mexico
• Protected areas established in 1987
• Archaeological sites in New Mexico
• Pre-Columbian cultural areas
• Great Divide of North America
• Protected areas of Cibola County, New Mexico
• Landforms of Cibola County, New Mexico
• 1987 establishments in New Mexico
• Lava fields
• Badlands of the United States