GRANTS, N.M. (KRQE) – The National Park Service is planning a prescribed burn at El Malpais National Monument. The plan is to burn about 500 acres of federal land on the north side of El Malpais National Monument alongside Highway 53 in April. “The primary objective of this prescribed fire is to improve savannah grasslands and Pinyon-juniper […]
Nearly a hundred ice-containing lava tubes have been found in El Malpais National Monument. One in particular, Cave 29, has the right seasonal conditions to keep ice frozen year-round deep inside it.
2:00
Early residents were living and farming in the area, and traveling along the well-established Zuni-Acoma Trail across the rough basalt of the “bad lands.” But in very dry times, they turned to cave ice as a water source, according to geoscientists.
Nearly a hundred ice-containing lava tubes have been found in El Malpais National Monument. One in particular, Cave 29, has the right seasonal conditions to keep ice frozen year-round deep inside it.
Bogdan Onac, geoscientist at the University of South Florida and his team, ventured about 500 feet into the back of Cave 29. They took an ice core sample and found charcoal in it. It was then radiocarbon dated and correlated with the tree-ring record for the area, so the timing of major droughts could be pinpointed fairly closely.