The West Silver Bell Mountains are a small 10 mile (16 km) long mountain range of south-central
Arizona,
United States. The range lies in the north-central arid
Sonoran Desert; the
Madrean Sky Islands region of southeast Arizona, around
Tucson is adjacent to the southeast.
The range lies mostly in
Pima County with only the northernmost end extending into southern
Pinal County
The range lies 25 mi west of
Marana Marana may refer to:
* Maraña, a village in León, Spain
* Maraṇa, the Pali/Sanskrit term for death
* Marana, Arizona, a town in Pima County, Arizona, United States
* Marana, Estonia, a village in Estonia
* Marana, Syria, a village in Syria
...
, and 25 mi south of
Eloy–
Casa Grande
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline = Casa Grande-Casa Grande Union High School-1920-2.jpg
, imagesize = 250px
, image_caption = Historic Casa Grande Union High School which now serves as the ...
, all cities on
Interstate 10 in Arizona. Casa Grande also begins the west route of
Interstate 8
Interstate 8 (I-8) is an Interstate Highway in the southwestern United States. It runs from the southern edge of Mission Bay at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in San Diego, California, almost at the Pacific Ocean, to the junction with I-10, ...
to
Yuma and
San Diego.
Description
The West Silver Bell Mountains are a small, low elevation range, in eastern regions of Arizona's
Sonoran Desert. Lower elevation regions west or southwest are even more arid, as the Sonoran Desert gets closer to the
Gran Desierto de Altar in northwestern Mexico.
The West Silver Bell Mountains are northwest–southeast trending, and merge in the southeast with the
Silver Bell Mountains
The Silver Bell Mountains are a northwest–southeast trending mountain range in north–central Pima County, Arizona. The range lies west of Marana, Arizona, located on Interstate-10, northwest of Tucson.
The range is located to the east of ...
. Both mountain ranges are named for the townsite of Silver Bell, and the Silver Bell Mine at the southern region of the Silver Bell Mountains. The southwest end of the
Sawtooth Mountains of Pinal County lies to the northwest. To the west across Aguirre Valley lie the
Slate Mountains of Pinal County and the
Santa Rosa Mountains of Pima County.
The West Silver Bell Mountains lie to the northeast of the
Aguirre Valley, a long, northwest-by-southeast trending valley bordered by five regional, low-elevation mountain ranges. The valley is
Basin and Range
Basin and range topography is characterized by alternating parallel mountain ranges and valleys. It is a result of crustal extension due to mantle upwelling, gravitational collapse, crustal thickening, or relaxation of confining stresses. The e ...
oriented, and the north merges into the floodplain region near the confluence of the northwest-flowing section of the
Santa Cruz River with the
Gila River
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...
. The community of
Saguaro lies at the southeast end foothills of the West Silver Bell Mountains, and is also bordered east by the main Silver Bell range foothills.
The high point of the range is Solo Peak, , on the northwest end of the range .
[''Greene Reservoir, Arizona,'' 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1996] At the southeast end of the range, and slightly offset to the northeast is the Malpais Hill, ; Malpais Hill is also connected to the northwest part of the Silver Bell Mountains.
The portion of the range in Pima County lies within the
Ironwood Forest National Monument
Ironwood Forest National Monument is located in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. Created by Bill Clinton by Presidential Proclamation 7320 on June 9, 2000, the monument is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, an agency within the United State ...
.
[Greene Reservoir, Arizona, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1996; Silver Bell West, Arizona, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1996; Gap Tank, Arizona, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1996]
References
{{Authority control
Mountain ranges of the Sonoran Desert
Mountain ranges of Pima County, Arizona
Mountain ranges of Pinal County, Arizona
Mountain ranges of Arizona