New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States of America. It is one of the Mountain States and shares the Four Corners region with Utah and Arizona. With a population around two million, New Mexico is the 36th state by population. With a total area of 121,592 sq mi, it is the fifth-largest and sixth-least densely populated of the 50 states. Due to their geographic locations and eastern New Mexico exhibit a colder, alpine climate, while western and southern New Mexico exhibit a warmer, arid climate; the economy of New Mexico is dependent on oil drilling, mineral extraction, dryland farming, cattle ranching, lumber milling, retail trade. As of 2016–2017, its total gross domestic product was $95 billion with a GDP per capita of $45,465. New Mexico's status as a tax haven yields low to moderate personal income taxes on residents and military personnel, gives tax credits and exemptions to favorable industries; because of this, its film industry contributed $1.23 billion to its overall economy.
Due to its large area and economic climate, New Mexico has a large U. S. military presence marked notably with the White Sands Missile Range. Various U. S. national security agencies base their research and testing arms in New Mexico such as the Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. During the 1940s, Project Y of the Manhattan Project developed and built the country's first atomic bomb and nuclear test, Trinity. Inhabited by Native Americans for many thousands of years before European exploration, it was colonized by the Spanish in 1598 as part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. In 1563, it was named Nuevo México after the Aztec Valley of Mexico by Spanish settlers, more than 250 years before the establishment and naming of the present-day country of Mexico. After Mexican independence in 1824, New Mexico became a Mexican territory with considerable autonomy; this autonomy was threatened, however, by the centralizing tendencies of the Mexican government from the 1830s onward, with rising tensions leading to the Revolt of 1837.
At the same time, the region became more economically dependent on the United States. At the conclusion of the Mexican–American War in 1848, the United States annexed New Mexico as the U. S. New Mexico Territory, it was admitted to the Union as the 47th state on January 6, 1912. Its history has given New Mexico the highest percentage of Hispanic and Latino Americans, the second-highest percentage of Native Americans as a population proportion. New Mexico is home to part of the Navajo Nation, 19 federally recognized Pueblo communities of Puebloan peoples, three different federally recognized Apache tribes. In prehistoric times, the area was home to Ancestral Puebloans and the modern extant Comanche and Utes inhabited the state; the largest Hispanic and Latino groups represented include the Hispanos of New Mexico and Mexican Americans. The flag of New Mexico features the state's Spanish origins with the same scarlet and gold coloration as Spain's Cross of Burgundy, along with the ancient sun symbol of the Zia, a Puebloan tribe.
These indigenous, Mexican and American frontier roots are reflected in the eponymous New Mexican cuisine and the New Mexico music genre. New Mexico received its name long before the present-day nation of Mexico won independence from Spain and adopted that name in 1821. Though the name “Mexico” itself derives from Nahuatl, in that language it referred to the heartland of the Empire of the Mexicas in the Valley of Mexico far from the area of New Mexico, Spanish explorers used the term “Mexico” to name the region of New Mexico in 1563. In 1581, the Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition named the region north of the Rio Grande "San Felipe del Nuevo México"; the Spaniards had hoped to find wealthy indigenous Mexica cultures there similar to those of the Aztec Empire of the Valley of Mexico. The indigenous cultures of New Mexico, proved to be unrelated to the Mexicas, they were not wealthy, but the name persisted. Before statehood, the name "New Mexico" was applied to various configurations of the U.
S. territory, to a Mexican state, to a province of New Spain, all in the same general area, but of varying extensions. With a total area of 121,699 square miles, the state is the fifth-largest state of the US, larger than British Isles. New Mexico's eastern border lies along 103°W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, 2.2 miles west of 103°W longitude with Texas. On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, with Chihuahua making up about 90% of that; the western border with Arizona runs along the 109° 03'W longitude. The southwestern corner of the state is known as the Bootheel; the 37°N parallel forms the northern boundary with Colorado. The states of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah come together at the Four Corners in New Mexico's northwestern corner. New Mexico has no natural water sources
Escalante, Utah
Escalante is a city in central Garfield County, United States located along Utah Scenic Byway 12 in the south central part of the state. As of the 2010 census, there were 797 people residing in the city; the city is named after Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a Franciscan missionary and a member of the first European expedition into southern Utah. The nearest towns are Boulder, 27 miles to the northeast on SR-12, Henrieville, 30 miles to the southwest on SR-12; the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park is located to the west of the city. Sections of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument abut much of the city's limits; the Hole-in-the-Rock Road, which begins 5 mi east of Escalante, is the main access road into the eastern section of GSENM. The road leads to the Canyons of the Devil's Garden and the Hole-in-the-Rock. In 1776, Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Domínguez left Santa Fe, New Mexico attempting to find a route to the missions of California; the Dominguez–Escalante Expedition followed a route north through western Colorado, west across central Utah and southwest through what is now called the Escalante Desert circling back to the east after reaching Arizona near the north rim of the Grand Canyon.
They returned to Santa Fe having never entered the areas near the city of Escalante. In 1866, Captain James Andrus led members of the Southern Utah militia through the Escalante area during the Black Hawk Indian War; the valley east of the Escalante Mountains, where the city of Escalante is located, was named Potato Valley since the group had found wild potatoes growing there. Settlers from Panguitch first visited the area in the 1870s, where they met members of the John Wesley Powell expedition; the settlement was named based on a suggestion of Powell's group to honor Escalante though the expedition had not traveled into the valley. In June 1875, the settlers returned to survey the valley. Twenty acre parcels were staked out for farming. After a winter spent back in Panguitch, the settlers returned again and the first home was built in March 1876 by William Alvey; the first settlers built many homes using native bricks and as a result those homes are still standing to this day. The primary industries of the new settlement of Escalante were cattle and sheep ranching, dairy farming and mining.
Farming and ranching continue to drive the local economy today, along with increasing tourist-related activities. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps built improved roads to Posey Boulder. Federal government management of large tracts of surrounding lands had begun and stricter regulation of public lands combined with limited private land resources caused many people to leave Escalante in the 1940s; the exodus to look for work in larger communities resulted in a loss of 33% of the population by the 1950 census. The population continued to decline through the next two decades, dropping as low as 638 people, leaving only 15 more people than the first census in 1880. An increase of 25% by the 1990 census was followed by no change in the 2000 census and a slight decline in the 2010 census. Since the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was established in 1996, Escalante has seen a large increase in the number of tourists in the spring though fall months. A survey taken from March to October 2004 by Utah State University claims that the BLM has estimated 600,000 visitors to various parts of GSENM, many of whom pass through Escalante.
As of the 2010 census, there were 797 people, 334 households, 217 families residing in the city. The population density was 271 people per square mile. There were 420 housing units at an average density of 143 per square mile; the racial makeup was 95.4% White, 2.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% Asian, 0.1% Black, 0.1% Native Hawaiian, 1.5% from other races, 0.3% from mixed racial ancestry and 3.5% Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 334 households out of which 22.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.2% were married couples living together, 4.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 3% had a male householder with no wife present and 35% were non-families. 30.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 12% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.03. The population was spread out with 22.1% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 9.7% from 25 to 34, 17.7% from 35 to 49, 24.2% from 50 to 64, 17.8% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 44.9 years. For every 100 females, there were 109.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over there were 101.6 males. The median yearly income for a household was $38,929 and the median income for a family was $48,654. Males had a median income of $51,223 versus $27,500 for females; the per capita income was $27,648. About 14.5% of families and 14.8% of the population were below the poverty line including 2.5% of those under age 18 and 25.3% of those age 65 or over. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.944 square miles, none of, covered with water. Escalante is surrounded by the mountains, flats and sandstone canyons of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Dixie National Forest; the city lies within the Potato Valley as designated on the official USGS map. The Escalante River flows from the west passing by the north side of the city and continuing eastward by an area named Big Flat. To the southeast of the city are the Canyons of the Escalante, the eastern part
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the Western United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 32nd most populous, but the 9th least densely populated of the U. S. states. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area where three of the state's four largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada's capital, however, is Carson City. Nevada is known as the "Silver State" because of the importance of silver to its history and economy, it is known as the "Battle Born State", because it achieved statehood during the Civil War. Nevada is desert and semi-arid, much of it within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada lie on the western edge. About 86% of the state's land is managed by various jurisdictions of the U. S. federal government, both civilian and military.
Before European contact, Native Americans of the Paiute and Washoe tribes inhabited the land, now Nevada. The first Europeans to explore the region were Spanish, they called the region Nevada because of the snow. The area formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, became part of Mexico when it gained independence in 1821; the United States annexed the area in 1848 after its victory in the Mexican–American War, it was incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a population boom that became an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31, 1864, as the second of two states added to the Union during the Civil War. Nevada has a reputation for its libertarian laws. In 1940, with a population of just over 110,000 people, Nevada was by far the least-populated state, with less than half the population of the next least-populated state. However, legalized gambling and lenient marriage and divorce laws transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination in the 20th century.
Nevada is the only U. S. state where prostitution is legal, though it is illegal in Clark County, Washoe County and Carson City. The tourism industry remains Nevada's largest employer, with mining continuing as a substantial sector of the economy: Nevada is the fourth-largest producer of gold in the world; the name "Nevada" comes from meaning "snow-covered", after the Sierra Nevada. Most Nevadans pronounce the second syllable of their state name using the TRAP vowel. Many from outside the Western United States pronounce it with the PALM vowel. Although the latter pronunciation is closer to the Spanish pronunciation, it is not the pronunciation preferred by most Nevadans. State Assemblyman Harry Mortenson proposed a bill to recognize the alternate pronunciation of Nevada, though the bill was not supported by most legislators and never received a vote; the Nevadan pronunciation is the de facto official one, since it is the one used by the state legislature. At one time, the state's official tourism organization, TravelNevada, stylized the name of the state as "Nevăda", with a breve mark over the a indicating the locally preferred pronunciation, available as a license plate design.
Nevada is entirely within the Basin and Range Province, is broken up by many north-south mountain ranges. Most of these ranges have endorheic valleys between them, which belies the image portrayed by the term Great Basin. Much of the northern part of the state is within the Great Basin, a mild desert that experiences hot temperatures in the summer and cold temperatures in the winter. Moisture from the Arizona Monsoon will cause summer thunderstorms; the state's highest recorded temperature was 125 °F in Laughlin on June 29, 1994. The coldest recorded temperature was −52 °F set in San Jacinto in 1972, in the northeastern portion of the state; the Humboldt River crosses the state from east to west across the northern part of the state, draining into the Humboldt Sink near Lovelock. Several rivers drain from the Sierra Nevada eastward, including the Walker and Carson rivers. All of these rivers are endorheic basins, ending in Walker Lake, Pyramid Lake, the Carson Sink, respectively. However, not all of Nevada is within the Great Basin.
Tributaries of the Snake River drain the far north, while the Colorado River, which forms much of the boundary with Arizona, drains much of southern Nevada. The mountain ranges, some of which have peaks above 13,000 feet, harbor lush forests high above desert plains, creating sky islands for endemic species; the valleys are no lower in elevation than 3,000 feet, while some in central Nevada are above 6,000 feet. The southern third of the state, where the Las Vegas area is situated, is within the Mojave Desert; the area is closer to the Arizona Monsoon in the summer. The terrain is lower below 4,000 feet, creating conditions for hot summer days and cool to chilly winter nights. Nevada and California have by far the longest diagonal line as a state boundary at just over 400 miles; this line begins in Lake Tahoe nearly
Arizona
Arizona is a state in the southwestern region of the United States. It is part of the Western and the Mountain states, it is the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona shares the Four Corners region with Utah and New Mexico. Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912, coinciding with Valentine's Day. Part of the territory of Alta California in New Spain, it became part of independent Mexico in 1821. After being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848; the southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase. Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with hot summers and mild winters. Northern Arizona features forests of pine, Douglas fir, spruce trees. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff and Tucson. In addition to the Grand Canyon National Park, there are several national forests, national parks, national monuments.
About one-quarter of the state is made up of Indian reservations that serve as the home of 27 federally recognized Native American tribes, including the Navajo Nation, the largest in the state and the United States, with more than 300,000 citizens. Although federal law gave all Native Americans the right to vote in 1924, Arizona excluded those living on reservations in the state from voting until the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of Native American plaintiffs in Trujillo v. Garley; the state's name appears to originate from an earlier Spanish name, derived from the O'odham name alĭ ṣonak, meaning "small spring", which applied only to an area near the silver mining camp of Planchas de Plata, Sonora. To the European settlers, their pronunciation sounded like "Arissona"; the area is still known as alĭ ṣonak in the O'odham language. Another possible origin is the Basque phrase haritz ona, as there were numerous Basque sheepherders in the area. A native Mexican of Basque heritage established the ranchería of Arizona between 1734 and 1736 in the current Mexican state of Sonora, which became notable after a significant discovery of silver there, c.
1737. There is a misconception. For thousands of years before the modern era, Arizona was home to numerous Native American tribes. Hohokam and Ancestral Puebloan cultures were among the many that flourished throughout the state. Many of their pueblos, cliffside dwellings, rock paintings and other prehistoric treasures have survived, attracting thousands of tourists each year; the first European contact by native peoples was with Marcos de Niza, a Spanish Franciscan, in 1539. He explored parts of the present state and made contact with native inhabitants the Sobaipuri; the expedition of Spanish explorer Coronado entered the area in 1540–1542 during its search for Cíbola. Few Spanish settlers migrated to Arizona. One of the first settlers in Arizona was José Romo de Vivar. Father Kino was the next European in the region. A member of the Society of Jesus, he led the development of a chain of missions in the region, he converted many of the Indians to Christianity in the Pimería Alta in the 1690s and early 18th century.
Spain founded presidios at Tubac in 1752 and Tucson in 1775. When Mexico achieved its independence from the Kingdom of Spain and its Spanish Empire in 1821, what is now Arizona became part of its Territory of Nueva California known as Alta California. Descendants of ethnic Spanish and mestizo settlers from the colonial years still lived in the area at the time of the arrival of European-American migrants from the United States. During the Mexican–American War, the U. S. Army occupied the national capital of Mexico City and pursued its claim to much of northern Mexico, including what became Arizona Territory in 1863 and the State of Arizona in 1912; the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo specified that, in addition to language and cultural rights of the existing inhabitants of former Mexican citizens being considered as inviolable, the sum of US$15 million dollars in compensation be paid to the Republic of Mexico. In 1853, the U. S. acquired the land south below the Gila River from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase along the southern border area as encompassing the best future southern route for a transcontinental railway.
What is now known as the state of Arizona was administered by the United States government as part of the Territory of New Mexico until the southern part of that region seceded from the Union to form the Territory of Arizona. This newly established territory was formally organized by the Confederate States government on Saturday, January 18, 1862, when President Jefferson Davis approved and signed An Act to Organize the Territory of Arizona, marking the first official use of the name "Territory of Arizona"; the Southern territory supplied the Confederate government with men and equipment. Formed in 1862, Arizona scout companies served with the Confederate States Army duri
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and attains a depth of over a mile; the canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon National Park, the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, the Hualapai Indian Reservation, the Havasupai Indian Reservation and the Navajo Nation. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of preservation of the Grand Canyon area, visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery. Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. While some aspects about the history of incision of the canyon are debated by geologists, several recent studies support the hypothesis that the Colorado River established its course through the area about 5 to 6 million years ago.
Since that time, the Colorado River has driven the down-cutting of the tributaries and retreat of the cliffs deepening and widening the canyon. For thousands of years, the area has been continuously inhabited by Native Americans, who built settlements within the canyon and its many caves; the Pueblo people considered the Grand Canyon a holy site, made pilgrimages to it. The first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was García López de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived in 1540; the Grand Canyon is a river valley in the Colorado Plateau that exposes uplifted Proterozoic and Paleozoic strata, is one of the six distinct physiographic sections of the Colorado Plateau province. It is not the deepest canyon in the world. However, the Grand Canyon is known for its visually overwhelming size and its intricate and colorful landscape. Geologically, it is significant because of the thick sequence of ancient rocks that are well preserved and exposed in the walls of the canyon; these rock layers record much of the early geologic history of the North American continent.
Uplift associated with mountain formation moved these sediments thousands of feet upward and created the Colorado Plateau. The higher elevation has resulted in greater precipitation in the Colorado River drainage area, but not enough to change the Grand Canyon area from being semi-arid; the uplift of the Colorado Plateau is uneven, the Kaibab Plateau that Grand Canyon bisects is over one thousand feet higher at the North Rim than at the South Rim. All runoff from the North Rim flows toward the Grand Canyon, while much of the runoff on the plateau behind the South Rim flows away from the canyon; the result is deeper and longer tributary washes and canyons on the north side and shorter and steeper side canyons on the south side. Temperatures on the North Rim are lower than those on the South Rim because of the greater elevation. Heavy rains are common on both rims during the summer months. Access to the North Rim via the primary route leading to the canyon is limited during the winter season due to road closures.
The Grand Canyon is part of the Colorado River basin which has developed over the past 70 million years, in part based on apatite /He thermochronometry showing that Grand Canyon reached a depth near to the modern depth by 20 Ma. A recent study examining caves near Grand Canyon places their origins beginning about 17 million years ago. Previous estimates had placed the age of the canyon at 5–6 million years; the study, published in the journal Science in 2008, used uranium-lead dating to analyze calcite deposits found on the walls of nine caves throughout the canyon. There is a substantial amount of controversy because this research suggests such a substantial departure from prior supported scientific consensus. In December 2012, a study published in the journal Science claimed new tests had suggested the Grand Canyon could be as old as 70 million years. However, this study has been criticized by those who support the "young canyon" age of around six million years as " attempt to push the interpretation of their new data to their limits without consideration of the whole range of other geologic data sets."The canyon is the result of erosion which exposes one of the most complete geologic columns on the planet.
The major geologic exposures in the Grand Canyon range in age from the 2-billion-year-old Vishnu Schist at the bottom of the Inner Gorge to the 230-million-year-old Kaibab Limestone on the Rim. There is a gap of about a billion years between the 500-million-year-old stratum and the level below it, which dates to about 1.5 billion years ago. This large unconformity indicates a long period. Many of the formations were deposited in warm shallow seas, near-shore environments, swamps as the seashore advanced and retreated over the edge of a proto-North America. Major exceptions include the Permian Coconino Sandstone, which contains abundant geological evidence of aeolian sand dune deposition. Several parts of the Supai Group were deposited in non–marine environments; the great depth of the Grand Canyon and the height of its strata can be attributed to 5–10 thousand feet of uplift of the Colorado Plateau, starting about 65 million years ago. This uplift has steepened the stream gradient of the Colorado River
Kaiparowits Formation
The Kaiparowits Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in the Kaiparowits Plateau in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, in the southern part of Utah in the western United States. It is over 2800 feet thick, is Campanian in age; this Upper Cretaceous formation was formed from alluvial floodplains of large rivers in coastal southern Laramidia. It is fossiliferous, with most specimens from the lower half of the formation, but exploration is only comparatively recent, with most work being done since 1982, it has been estimated. Most fieldwork has been conducted by The Natural History Museum of Utah. Traditionally, the Kaiparowits Formation has been considered to be equivalent in age to the northern Dinosaur Park Formation. This, combined with the differences in fauna between the two formations, has led some scientists, most notably Scott Sampson, to conclude that there was some kind of barrier separating northern and southern Laramidia at this time. However, preliminary re-calibration of late Cretaceous formation correlations suggests that the upper part of the Kaiparowits, where many of the unique species are found, is younger than the Dinosaur Park, that some Kaiparowits species may in fact be descendants of Dinosaur Park species.
According to this re-calibrated stratigraphic data, the Kaiparowits dates from about 76.8 to 74.3 million years ago. The timeline below follows the re-calibrated timeline of Fowler; the Kaiparowits Formation is a muddy bed, deposited between about 76.1 to 74.0 million years ago, in the area where the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument of Utah is today. It is fossil rich, with thousands of plants and animal fossils being preserved in amongst its sand- and mud-stone deposits. Based on plants remains including multiple vines and branches, It was assumed by paleontologists Scott Sampson and his colleagues that Utah in the Campanian was a dense jungle bordering the Western Interior Seaway; the jungle theory would support why all the animals in the Kaiparowits Formation were new species, why the deposits were so plentiful. Without the need for herbivores to migrate to find food, theropods to migrate after herbivores, a whole ecosystem could evolve secluded from interbreeding; the theory supported why the dinosaurs adorned such features like the 15 horns of Kosmoceratops, they were for sexual selection.
Animals present include chondrichthyans, bowfin, frogs, turtles, crocodilians, coelurosaurian theropods such as dromaeosaurids and Ornithomimus velox, armored dinosaurs, the duckbill Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus, a variety of early mammals including multituberculates and insectivorans. Recent finds include large specimens of the duckbill Gryposaurus, including the new species G. monumentensis, the first described remains of the oviraptorosaurian Hagryphus giganteus. Trace fossils are known from the Kaiparowits, including an excellently preserved hadrosaur skin impression known from a recent analysis by Herrero and Farke. List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations Weishampel, David B.. 861 pp. ISBN 0-520-24209-2
