A congressional effort to have Pinnacles National Monument redesignated as a "national park" is opposed by the National Park Service because the monument contains a limited array of resources.

Many of the visitors to Pinnacles National Monument in California hope for a glimpse of a rare California Condor in the wild. Thanks to the park's Artist in Residence program, they can also enjoy a beautiful stained glass depiction of a condor in flight.

The release of some of the rarest birds in the world for their first flights into the wild is scheduled for September 26, 2009, at Pinnacles National Monument. The public is invited to observe the release up to two California condors at the park Saturday morning.

There's a move afoot in Congress to have the name of Pinnacles National Monument changed to Pinnacles National Park.

Yellowstone National Park entered the new year shaking and rattling. Fortunately, there hasn’t been any real rolling just yet. But over at Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Redoubt Volcano has been going through its own gyrations, and volcanologists suspect it just might erupt any time now. Against that backdrop, if you want to see volcanics in action, or signs thereof, the National Park System has many opportunities for you.

This week’s quiz tests your knowledge of geologic features and processes in the national parks that lie within the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that rings the Pacific Basin. Answers are at the end. If we catch you peeking, we'll make you write "convergent boundary" 100 times on the whiteboard.