East Butte is a

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...

located in

Bingham County Bingham County is a county in the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 47,992. The county seat and largest city is Blackfoot. Bingham County comprises the Blackfoot, ID Micropolitan Statistical Area, wh ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, United States.

Description

East Butte and

line parent A peak's line parent is the closest higher peak on the highest ridge leading away from the peak's "key col". A col is the lowest point on the ridge between two summits and is roughly synonymous with pass, gap, saddle and notch. The highest col of ...

Big Southern Butte Big Southern Butte is the largest and youngest (300,000 years old) of three rhyolitic domes formed over a million years near the center of the Eastern Snake River Plain in the U.S. state of Idaho. It is one of the largest volcanic domes on earth ...

were major landmarks for early explorers and pioneers. The remote mountain is situated over 40 miles east of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, 32 miles west of the community of Idaho Falls, and can be seen from

Highway 20 Route 20, or Highway 20, may refer to: International * European route E20 Australia * Sturt Highway (NSW/VIC/SA) * Yarra Bank Highway Brazil * BR-020 Canada * Alberta Highway 20 * British Columbia Highway 20 * Manitoba Highway 20 *New B ...

midway between Idaho Falls and

Arco ARCO ( ) is a brand of gasoline stations currently owned by Marathon Petroleum after BP sold its rights. BP commercializes the brand in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States an ...

at milepost 274. East Butte is set on land belonging to the

Idaho National Laboratory Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is one of the national laboratories of the United States Department of Energy and is managed by the Battelle Energy Alliance. While the laboratory does other research, historically it has been involved with nu ...

so access is restricted even though a road leads to multiple radio towers at the top. Topographic relief is modest as the summit rises over above the Eastern

Snake River Plain image:Snake River view near Twin Falls, Idaho.jpg, The Snake River cutting through the plain leaves many canyons and Canyon#List of gorges, gorges, such as this one near Twin Falls, Idaho The Snake River Plain is a geology, geologic feature ...

in one mile. This landform's toponym has been officially adopted by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...

Geology

East Butte is a

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on ...

composed of

aphanitic Aphanites (adj. ''aphanitic''; ) are igneous rocks that are so fine-grained that their component mineral crystals are not visible to the naked eye (in contrast to phanerites, in which the crystals are visible to the unaided eye). This geologic ...

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

. It formed around 600,000 years ago as

sialic In geology, the term sial refers to the composition of the upper layer of Earth's crust, namely rocks rich in aluminium silicate minerals. It is sometimes equated with the continental crust because it is absent in the wide oceanic basins, but ...

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...

flowed through a conduit in the basalt plain which surrounds the peak.''The Land Volcanoes Made: the Buttes of the Snake River Plain from Idaho Falls to Arco, Idaho'', railsback.org
/ref>

Climate

East Butte is located in a

cold semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

zone with warm summers and cold winters ( Köppen ''BSk''). Winter temperatures can drop below 0 °F with wind chill factors below −20 °F. Precipitation is relatively sparse.

Gallery

File:East Butte (5035997065).jpg, Northwest aspect File:East Butte (5035995703).jpg, Southwest aspect File:East Butte (5036624056).jpg, South aspect File:East Butte (5036616466).jpg, Southwest aspect File:East Butte (5036015509).jpg, North aspect File:East Butte, 1901.jpg, East Butte, 1901 File:East Butte (5035994699).jpg, Left to right: East Butte,

Middle Butte Middle Butte is a summit located in Bingham County, Idaho, United States. Description Middle Butte is situated 40 miles east of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, 35 miles west of the community of Idaho Falls, and can be seen ...

, Big Southern Butte File:East Butte (of Twin Buttes).jpg, Aerial, looking south

References

{{reflist

External links

National Geodetic Survey Data Sheet
* East Butte
weather forecast
Mountains of Idaho Landforms of Bingham County, Idaho North American 2000 m summits Pleistocene lava domes Lava domes Volcanoes of Idaho