Tecozautla (

Otomi The Otomi (; es, Otomí ) are an indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano) region. The Otomi are an indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguisticall ...

: Masofo) is a town and one of the 84

municipalities of Hidalgo Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo is a Administrative divisions of Mexico#States, state in central Mexico divided into 84 municipalities of Mexico, municipalities. According to the 2020 Mexican Census, Hidalgo is the States of Mexico, 16th most populous st ...

, in central-eastern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The municipality covers an area of 575.6 km². The name derives from the

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

words "tetl", meaning "stone"; "cozaqui", meaning "yellow thing"; and "tla", meaning "place of"; making the entire meaning of Tecozautla "place where yellow earth abounds". As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 31,609. In 2017 there were 2,415 inhabitants who spoke an

indigenous language An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples. This language is from a linguistically distinct community that originated in the area. Indigenous languages are not neces ...

, primarily

Mezquital Otomi Northwestern Otomi is a Native American language of central Mexico. Varieties There are two varieties with limited (c. 78%) intelligibility, sometimes considered separate languages: *Mezquital Otomi (''Otomí del Valle del Mezquital''). The aut ...

. The town was declared a "

Pueblo Mágico In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

" in 2015.

Toponymy

The name ''Tecozautla'' comes from the

náhuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

''tetl'' -stone-, ''cozauqui'' -yellow thing- and ''tla'' which means -place of-; which together means "Place where the yellow earth abounds".The etymological origin of the name of a

Geography

Relief and hydrographic

As for

physiography Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, h ...

it is located within the province of the

Neovolcanic Axis The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt ( es, Eje Volcánico Transversal), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks h ...

; within the subprovince of Sierras y Llanuras de Querétaro and Hidalgo. As for its

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

it corresponds to the

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

period (91.86%),

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

(4.0%) and

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

(2.0%). With Extrusive igneous type rocks: basalt (29.86%), acid tuff (26.0%), volcanoclastic (12.0%), basic tuff-basic volcanic breccia (5.0%), acid tuff-acid volcanic breccia (5.0%) and rhyolite-acid tuff (2.0%); sedimentary: sandstone–conglomerate (12.0%) and limestone (4.0%); soil: alluvial (2.0%). Regarding

pedology Pedology (from Greek: πέδον, ''pedon'', "soil"; and λόγος, ''logos'', "study") is a discipline within soil science which focuses on understanding and characterizing soil formation, evolution, and the theoretical frameworks for modeling ...

the dominant soil is

phaeozem A Phaeozem in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is a dark soil with a high Soil#Base saturation percentage, base status, but without a secondary carbonates within one metre of the soil surface. Phaeozems correlate with the Udolls ...

(45.86%),

vertisol A vertisol, or vertosol, is a soil type in which there is a high content of expansive clay minerals, many of them known as montmorillonite, that form deep cracks in drier seasons or years. In a phenomenon known as argillipedoturbation, alternat ...

(26.0%),

calcisol A Calcisol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is a soil with a substantial secondary accumulation of lime. Calcisols are common in calcareous parent materials and widespread in arid and semi-arid environments. Formerly Calcisols w ...

(19.0%) and

leptosol A Leptosol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is a very shallow soil over hard rock or a deeper soil that is extremely gravelly and/or stony. Leptosols cover approximately 1.7 billion hectares of the Earth's surface. They are f ...

(7.0%). With regard to

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...

it is positioned in the hydrological region of the

Pánuco River The Pánuco River ( es, Río Pánuco, ), also known as the ''Río de Canoas'', is a river in Mexico fed by several tributaries including the Moctezuma River and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The river is approximately long and passes throug ...

; in the basins of the

Moctezuma River The Moctezuma River (Río Moctezuma) is a river in Mexico that drains the eastern side of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (Sierra Nevada). It is a tributary of the Pánuco River and flows through the Mexican states of Hidalgo, Querétaro, and San ...

; within the sub-basins of the

Tula River The Tula River ( es, Río Tula) is a river in Hidalgo State in central Mexico, and a tributary of the Moctezuma River. Geography It runs through the city of Tula de Allende and begins as a drainage channel for the Valley of Mexico, which contain ...

(35.0%), San Juan River (30.0%), Tecozautla River (21.0%) and Alfajayucan River (14.0%). It also has a dam, wells and springs. (14.0%). It also has a dam, wells and springs.

Weather

The following climates are located in the municipal territory with their respective percentage: Semi-dry semi-warm (54.0%) and semi-dry temperate (46.0%). With an average annual climatological temperature of 17 °C with a total annual precipitation of 517 millimeters.

Ecology

The

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

in the municipality is made up of a variety of trees such as oak, oyamel, biznaga, pitaya, huizache, maguey, cactus, organ and a large number of pirul trees, and some fruit trees. The

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

is made up of rabbits, rattlesnakes, hares, squirrels, ocelots, hawks, opossums, armadillos, deer, chameleons, coyotes, buzzards, insects and arachnids.

Notes

References

Municipalities of Hidalgo (state) Populated places in Hidalgo (state) Otomi settlements {{Hidalgo-geo-stub Pueblos Mágicos