Middle 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 topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

located in

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

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

, United States.

Description

Middle Butte is situated 40 miles east of

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a National monument (United States), U.S. national monument and national preserve in the Snake River Plain in central Idaho. It is along U.S. Route 20#Idaho, US 20 (Concurrency (road), concur ...

, 35 miles west of the community of

Idaho Falls Idaho Falls is the List of cities in Idaho, fourth most populous city in Idaho and the county seat of Bonneville County, Idaho, Bonneville County. It is the state's most populous city outside the Boise metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United St ...

, and can be seen from Highway 20 midway between Idaho Falls and

Arco Arco may refer to: Places * Arco, Trentino, a town in Trentino, Italy * Arco, Idaho, in the United States * Arco, Minnesota, a city in the United States * ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California, home of the Sacramento Kings Companies * ARCO (b ...

at milepost 271. Middle Butte, so named because it is positioned between Big Southern 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 ...

East Butte, were all landmarks for early explorers and pioneers. Middle 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. Historically, the lab has been involved with nuclear research, although the labora ...

Topographic relief Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

is modest as the summit rises over above the Eastern

Snake River Plain 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 located primarily within the U.S. state of Idaho. ...

in one-half 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 government of the United States, federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geogr ...

Geology

Middle Butte is a

cryptodome 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 ...

composed of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

which formed when an underlying mass of rhyolitic magma pushed up overlying layers of basalt of the Snake River Plain, but the magma never broke the surface.''The Land Volcanoes Made: the Buttes of the Snake River Plain from Idaho Falls to Arco, Idaho'', railsback.org
/ref> This manner of formation is different than that of East Butte where rhyolitic magma did break through the surface layer of basalt.

Climate

Middle Butte is located in a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

zone with warm summers and cold winters (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''BSk''). Winter temperatures can drop below 0 °F with wind chill factors below −20 °F. Precipitation is relatively sparse.

Gallery

File:Middle Butte and East Butte.jpg, West aspect of Middle Butte centered with East Butte in the distance File:Middle Butte (5034699010).jpg, West slope File:Middle Butte (5034708076).jpg, Northwest slope File:Middle Butte (5034716116).jpg, North slope File:Middle Butte (5034090691).jpg, North slope with juniper above, and sagebrush in foreground File:East Butte (5035994699).jpg, Left to right: East Butte, Middle Butte, Big Southern Butte File:Middle Butte from East Butte.jpg, Middle Butte (center) and Big Southern Butte (upper left) rise above the Snake River Plain as seen from East Butte File:Middle Butte (5034667242).jpg, Northeast aspect File:Middle Butte (of Twin Buttes).jpg, Aerial view

References

{{reflist

External links

* Middle Butte
weather forecast
* Three Buttes
Historical Marker Database
Mountains of Idaho Landforms of Bingham County, Idaho Lava domes of the United States Volcanoes of Idaho One-thousanders of the United States