File:The Popular science monthly (1912) (14769603045).jpg

Identifier: popularsciencemo81newy (find matches)
Title: The Popular science monthly
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Science Technology
Publisher: (New York, Popular Science Pub. Co., etc.)
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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ted hills which rise evenmore abruptly from the general plains-surface. Mesas, or tables,the Spanish-speaking settlers aptly denominate them. (Fig. 1.) Theregion is preeminently a mesa-land; therefore one of the most inter-esting and geologically one of the most instructive in all our domain. That any part of a great continental divide should be a vast plainin place of a towering mountain ridge is primarily a result of geologicstructure and secondarily of peculiarity of climate. In western NewMexico the broad plain occupying the divide is 7,000 feet above tide.So even is it that in crossing one is unaware of the time when he ceasesto ascend on the Atlantic slope and begins to go down on the Pacificside. The ocean-to-ocean railway excavates its grade on the top of thecontinent only a scant half-dozen feet—one of the shallowest cuts onits entire line. Mesas of the mesa-land impart to the landscape features entirelynovel. Nowhere else on the face of the earth do they reach such notable
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«Htr. H Q H X H uo 3s D m H Pi H faO1-3 o 13 a oi-i n H a p HS5 < ►J o fa WIND-GRAVED MESAS 229 development. They appear as even-topped surfaces more or less wellelevated above the general plains-surface about. The margins of thesetruncated mounds form the brow of a precipitous escarpment which isone of their most characteristic features. Xot infrequently the upperpart of the escarpment is a vertical wall 100, 200 or even 500 feet inheight. Mesa de Maya (armored mesa) and Llano Estacado (walledplain) are Spanish descriptive terms referring especially to this feature.The talus-like slopes below are the steepest of any angle of repose; andtheir meeting with the general plains-surface is as sharp as the strand-line. Mesa profiles and proportions are mainly functions of the geologicstructure and of age. Some of these plateau-plains are so small in areaand so high that they stand boldly out of the plain as conspicuous cones,or buttes. The Camaleon and Wagon-mound are illustrations. O

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