Mount Taylor (New Mexico)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mount Taylor | |
|---|---|
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| Elevation | 11,301 ft (3,445 m) |
| Location | New Mexico, United States |
| Range | San Mateo Mountains |
| Prominence | 4,094 ft (1,248 m) |
| Coordinates | |
| Topo map | USGS Mount Taylor (NM) |
| Easiest route | hike |
Mount Taylor is a stratovolcano in northwest New Mexico, northeast of the town of Grants. It is the high point of the San Mateo Mountains and the highest point in the Cibola National Forest. It was named in 1849 for then president Zachary Taylor. Prior to that, it was called Cebolleta (tender onion) by the Spanish; the name persists as one name for the northern portion of the San Mateo Mountains, a large mesa. To the Dine, it is Tsoodzil, the turquoise mountain, and the sacred mountain that marks the southern boundary of the Dinetah, the traditional Navajo homeland. Also, both the Laguna and the Acoma peoples consider it to be sacred. Mount Taylor is largely forested, rising like a blue cone above the desert below. Its slopes were an important source of lumber for neighboring pueblos.
Mount Taylor was active from 3.3 to 1.5 million years ago during the Pliocene, and is surrounded by a field of smaller inactive volcanos. It is part of the same volcanic system as the nearby El Malpais. When Mount Taylor erupted, it cut off a large chunk of the mountain's summit. Estimates vary about how high the mountain was before the eruption, common estimates are between 12,000 and 17,000 feet, although more recent estimates estimate that it could have been much higher, between 15,000 and 22,000 feet[citation needed].
Mount Taylor is very rich in a uranium-vanadium bearing mineral, and was mined extensively for it from 1979 to 1990. The Mount Taylor and the hundreds of other uranium mines on Pueblo lands have provided over thirteen million tons of uranium ore to the United States since 1945.
[edit] Notes
- ↑ There are two small ranges in New Mexico called the San Mateo Mountains; this is the northern one. The other range is near the Plains of San Agustin.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- UND Volcanoworld
- Skiing the Pacific Ring of Fire and Beyond
- Navajo Uranium Worker Oral History and Photography Project
- Pictures of the mountain
- Maps and aerial photos
- WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image from TerraServer-USA
- Surrounding area map from Google Maps
- Location in the United States from the Census Bureau
