Defiance Plateau

35.85344 - 109.242554Koordinaten: 35 ° 51 'N, 109 ° 15 ' W

The Defiance Uplift is an improvement on the border of the U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico in the heart of the Colorado Plateau. It runs in a north -south direction and has a length of over 150 km at about 55 to 70 km wide. Through them, the Defiance Plateau has arisen with a maximum height of 2389 m.

Geography

The name comes from defiance former military base and the same present settlement Fort Defiance, which are in turn named after the English word that means about defend himself. He was transferred in 1916 to the plateau and later on the elevation. South of Fort Defiance Window Rock is the settlement. On the Defiance Platau even there except these two places usually only scattered settlements of the Navajo, on the edge of the uplift are Shiprock and Gallup on the New Mexico belonging to eastern flank, and Ganado, Chinle, and Mexican Water, Arizona and the West. In the valleys, which limit the elevation, each extending highways, north of U.S. 64, which opens into the U.S. 160, east of U.S. 666, south of Interstate Highway 40 and west of U.S. 191 The only major crossing of the area is the running east -west New Mexico State Road 264, or Arizona State Route 264, the Window Rock crosses.

The entire lift is located in the Navajo Nation, the self-governing territory of the People of the Navajo, who call themselves as Diné.

Geology

The uplift was at the end of the Cretaceous period and before 50 million years ago ( mya ), which was also the end of the 80-40 mya held lara mix orogeny, originated in the the Rocky Mountains. The Defiance Uplift lifted and tipped the boulder so that the resulting Defiance Plateau in the east rises steeply and then gently slopes down to the west. The fact that the elevation is not completely straight is done, leaving evidence of shearing motion in consequence of a strike-slip fault.

In the east, the Chuska Mountains close, to the north the Carrizo Mountains on.

The uplift took place so slowly that water runs could dig into the relatively soft sandstone of the block on the inclined surface from east to west, which belongs to the rock layer of the De Chelly Sandstone. Several of these watercourses that have gathered at the place named after the Chinle Wash, canyons dug with nearly vertical walls in the rock. These converging gorges are the Canyon de Chelly, the type not only because of its scenic and geological features, but also for its history as a settlement and sanctuary for prehistoric Anasazi and live there today Navajo Indians as Canyon de Chelly National Monument as a memorial a National Monument is reported.

In the Oligocene and the Lower Miocene epoch, about 28-19 million years ago got into the caused by the uplift Monoklinalen, East Defiance Monoclinic to the east and the west Defiance Monoclinic the west magma as lava and stepped out to the surface. About 50 of the more than 80 diatremes of the comprehensive a larger region Navajo Volcanic Field are on the Defiance Uplift. The volcanic field allowed because of its unusual rock composition a look into the mantle shortly after the lama step orogeny.

History

The region was inhabited in prehistoric times by all characteristic archaeological cultures that belong to the Anasazi. From the early Basket Maker, whose first appearance is not precisely datable, up to the builders of the Pueblos from about 700 and the collapse of the Anasazi cultures around the year 1300. Direct successor they did not have in the region, the Zuni and other peoples of the Pueblo culture still live to the east of the Rio Grande. The Hopi originally lived there as well, before they were displaced to the west in the 19th century in their present reservation in Arizona the Defiant area.

From northern regions of new residents moved into the Southwest and the Defiance area. As in the 16th century, the first Spaniards reached the area, they met with the early Navajo. Beginning of the 18th century Spaniard laid a Spanish mission in St. Michaels in the south of the plateau where more missions originated in Ganado in the southwest of the area and the Emmanuel Mission in the north. 1804/ 05 and then again in 1864, Canyon de Chelly was the last retreat and shelter against military campaigns, only the Spaniards, then the U.S. Army against the Navajo. 1868 were the survivors of the expulsion referred to as Long Walk to return to their home region again. They inhabit since again the Defiant plateau.

In 1876, the dealer Lorenzo Hubbell its first trading post in Ganado, the Hubbell Trading Post, which is recognized for its special historical significance as a National Historic Site. Ten years later he founded a branch in Chinle.