The Sierra de Los Tuxtlas (Tuxtlas Mountains) are a

volcanic belt A volcanic belt is a large volcanically active region. Other terms are used for smaller areas of activity, such as volcanic fields. Volcanic belts are found above zones of unusually high temperature () where magma is created by partial melting ...

and

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

along the southeastern

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

Gulf coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coast, coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The list of U.S. states and territories by coastline, coastal states that have a shor ...

in Eastern Mexico. The Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve (Biósfera Los Tuxtlas) includes the coastal and higher elevations of the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas. The volcanic mountains were used as a

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

source by the

Olmec The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that ...

culture during the Early Formative period (1500 BCE to about 400 BCE). Quarried basalt was transported by raft through a network of rivers, to sites in the

Olmec heartland The Olmec heartland is the southern portion of Mexico's Gulf Coast region between the Tuxtla mountains and the Olmec archaeological site of La Venta, extending roughly 80 km (50 mi) inland from the Gulf of Mexico coastline at its deepest. It i ...

for use in creating monuments, including colossal heads.

Geography

Peaks in this range include Volcano Santa Marta and Volcano San Martín Tuxtla, both rising above 1,700 meters. San Martín Tuxtla is the only recently active volcano in the belt, erupting in 1664 and again in May 1793. It is a broad alkaline shield volcano with a one kilometer wide summit. Hundreds of smaller cinder cones are prevalent throughout the Sierra. Other,

extinct volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

es include San Martin Pajapan (1,160 meters) and Cerro El Vigia (800 meters). The Sierra de Los Tuxtlas volcanoes are an insular anomaly. The volcanoes are separated from the nearest volcano in the

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt 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 ...

to the west by about 150 miles (250 km), and from the

Central American Volcanic Belt The Central American Volcanic Arc (often abbreviated to CAVA) is a chain of volcanoes which extends parallel to the Pacific coastline of the Central American Isthmus, from Mexico to Panama. This volcanic arc, which has a length of 1,100 kilometer ...

to the southeast by almost 200 miles (330 km).

Natural history

The upper flanks of the San Martin Tuxtla and Santa Marta volcanoes are covered with the

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

Sierra de los Tuxtlas tropical rainforest

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

, of the

tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discon ...

biome. The lower portions are covered with stunted pastures and grasslands. The

Tuxtla quail-dove The Tuxtla quail-dove (''Zentrygon carrikeri'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to southeastern Mexico. Taxonomy and systematics The Tuxtla quail-dove is monotypic. It and the purplish-backed quail-dove (''Zentry ...

(''Zentrygon carrikeri'') is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the ecoregion. Volcan San Martin rainfrog, '' Craugastor vulcani'', is an

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

frog endemic to rain and cloud forests of Sierra de los Tuxtlas. The area is also home to an endemic species of giant scarab beetle, '' Dynastes moroni'', described in 2005.Ratcliffe, B. C., R. D. Cave, and E. Cano. 2013. The dynastine scarab beetles of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum 27: 1-666.

References

* (in Spanish) * {{cite gvp, vn=341830, name=San Martín Pajapan

External links

Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve
Tuxtlas Landforms of Veracruz Ecoregions of Mexico Neotropical tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Geography of Mesoamerica Volcanic belts Volcanism of Mexico Important Bird Areas of Mexico

Geography

Natural history

See also

References

External links