page_title: Moscow, Idaho
section_title: Geography and natural history
hierarchical_section_title: Moscow, Idaho / Geography and natural history
caption_attribution_description: English: Moscow, Idaho (right) along the state border of Washington.
context_page_description: Moscow is a city in northern Idaho along the state border with Washington, with a population of 23,800 at the 2010 census. The county seat and largest city of Latah County, Moscow is the home of the University of Idaho, the state's land-grant institution and primary research university.
  It is the principal city in the Moscow, Idaho Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Latah County. The city contains over 60% of the county's population, and while the university is Moscow's dominant employer, the city also serves as an agricultural and commercial hub for the Palouse region.
  Along with the rest of northern Idaho, Moscow is in the Pacific Time Zone. The elevation of its city center is 2,579 feet above sea level. Major highways serving the city are US-95 and ID-8, both of which are routed through central Moscow. Limited commercial air service is four miles west at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport.
context_section_description: Main Street runs north-south through Moscow along the 117th meridian west.
  According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.85 square miles (17.74 km²), all of it land.
  
  Moscow lies on the eastern edge of the Palouse region of north central Idaho in the Columbia River Plateau. East of the city is a valley within the mountains of the Palouse Range to the northeast, whose highest point is Moscow Mountain at 4,983 feet (1,519 m) above sea level. The less prominent Paradise Ridge at 3,702 feet (1,128 m) and Tomer Butte at 3,474 feet (1,059 m) are southeast of the city. Paradise Creek, with headwaters on Moscow Mountain to the northeast, flows through Moscow, then crosses the state border and joins the south fork of the Palouse River near Pullman, which eventually drains into the Snake River and Columbia River on its way to the Pacific Ocean.
  The geology in and around Moscow represents varied formations: very old intrusive granite structures of the Jurassic−Eocene Idaho Batholith, fertile fields atop rolling hills of deep Pleistocene loess of the Palouse Formation deposited after the last ice age by westerly winds, and flood-worn channels of the Columbia River Basalt Group.
  There is a variety of flora and fauna within the vicinity of Moscow. An amphibian, the Rough-skinned Newt, has a disjunctive population at Moscow; this species is found typically along the Pacific coast of the USA. The city sits at the boundary between the Palouse grasslands and wheat fields, and the conifer forests of the Rocky Mountains to the east.
caption: Moscow, Idaho (right) along the state border of Washington.
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