A malpaís is a landform

Landform

A landform or physical feature in the earth sciences and geology sub-fields, comprises a geomorphological unit, and is largely defined by its surface form and location in the landscape, as part of the terrain, and as such, is typically an element of topography...

 characterized by eroded rocks of volcanic origin

Volcanic rock

Volcanic rock is a rock formed from magma erupted from a volcano. In other words, it is an igneous rock of volcanic origin...

 in an arid environment. This describes many xeric

Deserts and xeric shrublands

Deserts and xeric shrublands is a biome characterized by, relating to, or requiring only a small amount of moisture.-Definition and occurrence:...

 places, but is strongly connected to Spanish-speaking countries and the Southwestern United States

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

 because of the Spanish settlers that gave the landform its name.

Badlands landform

The word 'malpaís' in Spanish translates to "badland", and this describes the area as being unusable for crops. Although a malpaís is often another word for the badlands

Badlands

A badlands is a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. It can resemble malpaís, a terrain of volcanic rock. Canyons, ravines, gullies, hoodoos and other such geological forms are common in badlands. They are often...

 that form by erosion of sedimentary rocks in the same environment, a malpaís is also often associated with such types of lava plain

Lava plain

A lava plain, also called a lava field or lava bed, is a large expanse of nearly flat-lying lava flows. Such features are generally composed of highly-fluid basalt lava, and can extend for tens or even hundreds of miles across the underlying terrain...

 terrain as found in a volcanic field

Volcanic field

A volcanic field is an area of the Earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. They usually contain 10 to 100 volcanoes, such as cinder cones and are usually in clusters. Lava flows may also occur...

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Examples

The El Malpais National Monument

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.-Geography:The El...

 is an example of this landform in New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. The Carrizozo Malpaís

Carrizozo Malpais

The Carrizozo Malpais is a large lava flow on the west side of Carrizozo, New Mexico, on the northern part of the Tularosa Basin between Sierra Blanca to the southeast and the Oscura Mountains to the west....

 and Jornada del Muerto Volcano

Jornada del Muerto Volcano

The Jornada del Muerto Volcano is a small shield volcano and lava field in central New Mexico, about in size and reaching an elevation of . Jornada del Muerto means ""Journey of the Dead Man" in Spanish, referring to the desolate colonial era trail from New Spain through this Malpaís...

 lava plain, in the Tularosa Basin

Tularosa Basin

The Tularosa Basin is a graben basin in the Basin and Range Province and within the Chihuahuan Desert, east of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States.-Geography:...

's Jornada del Muerto

Jornada del Muerto

The Jornada del Muerto in the U.S. state of New Mexico was the name given by the Spanish conquistadors to the Jornada del Muerto Desert basin, and the particularly dry stretch of a route through it.The trail lead northward from central Spanish colonial New Spain, present-day Mexico, to the farthest...

 Desert are other New Mexico examples. The Malpaís de Güímar

Malpaís de Güímar

Malpaís de Güímar or Badlands of Guimar consist of a volcanic cone, subsidiary cones, and several basaltic lava flows in the Güímar municipality on the island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, . They total in area about 290 hectares. The lava flows are quite recent, less than 10,000 years old of...

 is an example in the Spanish Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

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Etymology

A loanword

Loanword

A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...

 from Catalan

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 and Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, malpaís is in wide use in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 in the southwest United States. Although the literal translation of malpaís is "badland", other Spanish (Castilian

Castilian

Castilian may refer to:* Alternative name for the Spanish language .* Something related to the Crown of Castile, a former state in present-day Spain...

) terms for badlands are tierras baldías and cárcava.