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Mesa Prieta
Mesa Prieta is a mesa in Sandoval County New Mexico. The mesa was formed by a basaltic lava flow approximately 3.3 myr. When the Rio Grande began to flow through the area, it eroded the softer sedimentary layers beneath the basaltic layer creating a mesa. The sedimentary rocks include the Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone, Mancos Shale, and Gallup Sandstone. Rio Puerco flows south on the west side of the mesa. The Ojito Wilderness is to the east of the mesa, and Cabezon Peak is to the north. Petroglyphs The basaltic rocks of the mesa naturally form a patina which can be scraped by humans to create petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...s. Mesa Prieta is the site of one of the largest collections of petroglyphs in New Mexico. Archaeological surveys have estima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesa
A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a more resistant layer or layers of harder rock, e.g. shales overlain by sandstones. The resistant layer acts as a caprock that forms the flat summit of a mesa. The caprock can consist of either sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and limestone; dissected lava flows; or a deeply eroded duricrust. Unlike ''plateau'', whose usage does not imply horizontal layers of bedrock, e.g. Tibetan Plateau, the term ''mesa'' applies exclusively to the landforms built of flat-lying strata. Instead, flat-topped plateaus are specifically known as '' tablelands''.Duszyński, F., Migoń, P. and Strzelecki, M.C., 2019. ''Escarpment retreat in sedimentary tablelands and cuesta landscapes–Landforms, mechanisms and patterns.'' ''Earth-Science Reviews, no. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gallup Sandstone
The Gallup Sandstone is a Formation (geology), geologic formation in the Gallup-Zuni basin of New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the late Cretaceous Period (geology), period. Description The formation consists of uniform, very well sorted, fine-grained pink to buff sandstone with lesser amounts of shale and siltstone. It has a total thickness of . The sandstone is highly Bioturbation, bioturbated and in some place shows ripple marks and low-angle crossbedding. It overlies and intertongues with the Mancos Shale and is overlain and intertongues with the Crevasse Canyon Formation. The formation has few faunal fossils, but the age is likely late Turonian to early Coniacian. The formation is interpreted as an offshore marine transgression (geology), transgression-regression (geology), regression sequence. History of investigation The unit was first defined by J.D. Sears in 1925 as the Gallup Sandstone Member of the Mesaverde Formation and named after Gallup, New Mexico, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petroglyph National Monument
Petroglyph National Monument stretches along Albuquerque, New Mexico's West Mesa, a volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the city's western horizon. Authorized June 27, 1990, the 7,236 acre (29.28 km2) monument is cooperatively managed by the National Park Service and the City of Albuquerque. The western boundary of the monument features a chain of dormant fissure volcanoes. Beginning in the northwest corner, Butte volcano is followed to its south by Bond, Vulcan, Black and JA volcanoes. Petroglyph National Monument protects a variety of cultural and natural resources including five volcanic cones, hundreds of archeological sites and an estimated 24,000 petroglyph images carved by Ancestral Pueblo peoples and early Spanish settlers. Many of the images are recognizable as animals, people, brands and crosses; others are more complex. Their meaning was, possibly, understood only by the carver. These images are the cultural heritage of a people who have long since move ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puebloans
The Puebloans or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Currently 100 pueblos are actively inhabited, among which Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi are the best-known. Pueblo people speak languages from four different language families, and each Pueblo is further divided culturally by kinship systems and agricultural practices, although all cultivate varieties of maize. Pueblo peoples have lived in the American Southwest for millennia and descend from Ancestral Pueblo peoples. The term ''Anasazi'' is sometimes used to refer to ancestral Pueblo people but it is now largely minimized. ''Anasazi'' is a Navajo word that means ''Ancient Ones'' or ''Ancient Enemy'', hence Pueblo peoples' rejection of it (see exonym). ''Pueblo'' is a Spanish term for "village." When Spaniards entered the area, beginning in the 16th-century with the founding of Nuevo México, they came across ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petroglyph
A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images. Petroglyphs are found worldwide, and are often associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the Greek prefix , from meaning "stone", and meaning "carve", and was originally coined in French as . Another form of petroglyph, normally found in literate cultures, a rock relief or rock-cut relief is a relief sculpture carved on "living rock" such as a cliff, rather than a detached piece of stone. While these relief carvings are a category of rock art, sometimes found in conjunction with rock-cut architecture, they tend to be omitted in most works on rock art, which concentrate on engravings and paintings by prehistoric or nonliterate cultures. Some of these reliefs exploit the rock's nat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desert Varnish
Desert varnish or rock varnish is an orange-yellow to black coating found on exposed rock surfaces in arid environments. Desert varnish is approximately one micrometer thick and exhibits nanometer-scale layering. Rock rust and desert patina are other terms which are also used for the condition, but less often. Formation Desert varnish forms only on physically stable rock surfaces that are no longer subject to frequent precipitation, fracturing or wind abrasion. The varnish is primarily composed of particles of clay along with oxides of iron and manganese. There is also a host of trace elements and almost always some organic matter. The color of the varnish varies from shades of brown to black. It has been suggested that desert varnish should be investigated as a potential candidate for a "shadow biosphere". However, a 2008 microscopy study posited that desert varnish has already been reproduced with chemistry not involving life in the lab, and that the main component is actually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabezon Peak
Cabezon Peak is a large volcanic plug that is a prominent feature in northwestern New Mexico. It rises to in elevation, and nearly 2,000 feet above the floor of the Rio Puerco Valley. Cabezon Peak is two miles south of the old ghost town of Cabezon and the Rio Puerco. This volcanic neck is formed of basalt and is part of the Mount Taylor volcanic field. A volcanic neck or plug is formed when magma from an existing volcano solidifies in the pipe or neck and the surrounding sediment is eroded away. Marine Cretaceous rocks of the Mancos Shale and Point Lookout Sandstone are exposed around the base of Cabezon Peak. Cabezon means “big head” in Spanish. This stems from a Navajo myth which holds that it is the head of the giant Ye’i-tsoh after being slain by the twins Nayenezgani and To’badzistsini. The first geologist to study Cabezon Peak was likely Clarence E. Dutton, who also photographed the peak in 1884–1885. Further studies were carried out by Douglas Wilson Johnson in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ojito Wilderness
Ojito Wilderness is a designated Wilderness Area in Sandoval County, New Mexico, administered by the U. S. Bureau of Land Management. Established in 2005, the 11,823 acre primitive area protects a rugged and austere landscape north of Albuquerque, and is open to primitive camping, hiking, and horseback riding. Background Contiguous to the southern end of the Pueblo of Zia, the Wilderness Area was established in 2005 by Public Law 109-94, known as the “Ojito Wilderness Act,” which both created the protected area, and also took lands within the designated area into trust for the Pueblo of Zia Indian Reservation. While the Reservation would pay for both the appraisal of the land and the land itself, the territory in question would be held in trust by the Federal government, to ensure, in the words of the law, the ability of the public to “access the lands for recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, paleontological, and conservation uses.” The wilderness Despite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rio Puerco (Rio Grande Tributary)
The Rio Puerco is a tributary of the Rio Grande in the U.S. state of New Mexico. From its source on the west side of the Nacimiento Mountains, it flows about ,Calculated in Google Earth generally south to join the Rio Grande about south of Belen and about south of Albuquerque. Its drainage basin is about large, of which probably about are noncontributing. The Rio Puerco is ephemeral, with no streamflow for part of the year. Its discharge averages . The maximum officially recorded discharge was , in 1941. The greatest flood since about 1880 occurred on September 23, 1929, with an estimated discharge of . Another flood, on August 12, 1929, reached an estimated . Name Although Rio Puerco means ''River of Pigs'' in Spanish, this usage in the southwestern United States is better translated as ''Muddy River''. Course The Rio Puerco arises in the San Pedro Peaks area of the Nacimiento Mountains, in the San Pedro Parks Wilderness area of the Santa Fe National Forest. It flows g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mancos Shale
The Mancos Shale or Mancos Group is a Late Cretaceous (Upper Cretaceous) geologic formation of the Western United States. The Mancos Shale was first described by Cross and Purington in 1899 and was named for exposures near the town of Mancos, Colorado. Geology The unit is dominated by mudrock that accumulated in offshore and marine environments of the Cretaceous North American Inland Sea. The Mancos was deposited during the Cenomanian (locally Albian) through Campanian ages, approximately from 95 million years ago ( Ma) to 80 Ma. Stratigraphically the Mancos Shale fills the interval between the Dakota and the Mesaverde Group. The lower marine Mancos Shale conformably intertongues with terrestrial sandstones and mudstones of the Dakota and in its upper part grades into and intertongues with the Mesaverde Group. The shale tongues typically have sharp basal contacts and gradational upper contacts. Whereas in the plains east of the Rocky Mountains certain mappable marine sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio Grande is . It originates in south-central Colorado, in the United States, and flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Rio Grande drainage basin (watershed) has an area of ; however, the endorheic basins that are adjacent to and within the greater drainage basin of the Rio Grande increase the total drainage-basin area to . The Rio Grande with Rio Grande Valley (landform), its fertile valley, along with its tributaries, is a vital watersource for seven US and Mexican states, and flows primarily through arid and semi-arid lands. After traversing the length of New Mexico, the Rio Grande becomes the Mexico–United States border, between the U.S. state of Texas and the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua and Coahuila, Nuevo León a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dakota Sandstone
The Dakota is a sedimentary rock, sedimentary geologic unit name of Formation (stratigraphy), formation and Group (stratigraphy), group rank in Midwestern North America. The Dakota units are generally composed of sandstones, mudstones, clays, and shales deposited in the Mid-Cretaceous opening of the Western Interior Seaway.Monroe, James S. and Wicander, Reed (1997) ''The Changing Earth: Exploring Geology and Evolution'' (2nd edition) Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California, page 610, The usage of the name Dakota for this particular Albian-Cenomanian strata is exceptionally widespread; from British Columbia and Alberta to Montana and Wisconsin to Colorado and Kansas to Utah and Arizona. It is famous for producing massive colorful rock formations in the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains of the United States, and for preserving both Fossil track, dinosaur footprints and early deciduous tree leaves. Owing to extensive weathering of older rocks during the Jurassic and Tri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
