Nature
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Bandera Volcano Ice Cave, also called Zuni Ice Cave, is a lava tube in the El Malpais lava field of western New Mexico with an unusually cold interior that preserves perennial ice, with some sections remaining below freezing year-round. Formed during the Bandera Crater eruption about 9,500 to 10,900 years ago in the Zuni-Bandera volcanic field, it is part of a landscape shaped by basaltic volcanism that also created a cinder cone, collapse pits, spatter cones, and a lava spine. Long used by local Indigenous people for food storage, the cave is now recognized as one of New Mexico’s most distinctive volcanic features.
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New Mexico · United States
