Mesas in New Mexico
by Birgit Seeger-Brooks
Title
Mesas in New Mexico
Artist
Birgit Seeger-Brooks
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Spanish explorers in the mid-sixteenth century ranged over the American Southwest. They had come north from Mexico, looking for gold and gems. In their quest, they found neither gold nor riches. They did, however, become the first Europeans to view the geological wonders of the area, and they were amazed at what they saw.
Among the canyons, plateaus, and rock towers and arches, the explorers saw landforms that appeared plateau like, only smaller and isolated. They called these geologic features mesas, which means table in Spanish, because the explorers thought the landforms resembled tables with their smooth, flat tops and sides that drop away steeply. Populating the spare, arid landscape of the area along with mesas were still smaller landforms that had a similar appearance. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the word butte was coined from the French word meaning mound or hillock to describe these solitary landforms.
A mesa's and butte's characteristic shapeflat top and cliff like sidesis due to the layers of rock forming them. These landforms are most often composed of sedimentary rock, formed by the accumulation and compression of sediment (which may consist of rock fragments, remains of microscopic organisms, and minerals). This type of rock covers more than 75 percent of Earth's land surface. Most sedimentary rocks occur in layers, called strata, that are mostly horizontal or flat when first formed. Forces within Earth that rupture the surface to form volcanoes, mountains, plateaus, and many other topographical features, may later cause these layers to tip, fold, warp, or fracture.
The top layer of a mesa and a butte is a hardened layer of rock that is resistant to erosion, which is the gradual wearing away of Earth surfaces through the action of wind and water. Sometimes this top layer, called the cap rock, is not sedimentary rock but is cooled and hardened lava that had spread out across the landscape in repeated flows from fissures or cracks in the ground. Beneath this flat protective cap of rock are horizontal layers of softer sedimentary rock. To varying degrees, these layers are not as resistant to erosion.
These landforms are found in arid and semiarid regions. Arid regions are defined as those that receive less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain per year; semiarid regions receive 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) of rain per year. Precipitation in these regions often comes in the form of sudden, heavy rainfalls. Because water evaporates quickly in these normally dry environments, plants and other ground cover are scarce. Left exposed to the action of running water, the bare sides of the softer rock layers of mesas and buttes are eroded away over time. The base of these landforms is often gently sloped, contrasting with the almost-vertical sides leading down from the top. Rock material that has been eroded from the sides is carried downward, forming this sloping base.
This landscape is forever mesmerizing to me.
Location Torrance County NM
Uploaded
November 3rd, 2013
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