Llano Estacado
The Llano Estacado (pronunciation in Spanish [ ˈʎano estaˈkaðo ], English [ ˈjano ɛstəˈkaɾo ]), also Staked Plains , is a region in the United States . It is located in the southeastern part of New Mexico and in the northwestern part of Texas and is in this area the southernmost branch of the Great Plains , the great prairie areas.
The Llano Estacado was first described by the Spanish conqueror Francisco Vásquez de Coronado on October 20, 1541 in a letter to the Spanish king. The cliffs and inaccessible rock formations of the Mescalero and Caprock steep slopes that surround the plateau were referred to as palisade-like by the first Europeans, which led to the name being given.
geography
It is a relatively flat treeless and dry table land ( mesa ), the limits of which lie between 101 ° and 104 ° west longitude and between 31 ° and 35 ° north latitude at an altitude of 760 to 1200 m above sea level. With approximately 100,000 km² it is one of the largest tabular countries on the American continent. There is a semi-arid climate. The average rainfall in the area is 500 mm per year.
The Llano Estacado is bordered to the west by the Mescalero escarpment of the Rio Pecos , to the east by the Caprock escarpment to the hill country in central Texas. In the north it is separated from the prairies by the valley of the Canadian River and in the southeast it merges into the Edwards Plateau . The plain is often hit by tornadoes.
geology
The oldest layers of the plateau were formed towards the end of the Paleozoic about 260 million years ago. Towards the end of the Mesozoic Era , around 70 million years ago, the Rocky Mountains began to form. The Llano region was initially largely unaffected by this. The youngest layers of the Llano Estacado were not formed until the younger Cenozoic from around 15 million years ago, with the beginning of uplift of the Colorado Plateau : As a result of increased erosion in the ascending areas, corresponding molassoid sediments were poured into the plains to the east. At the end of the Miocene , about 10 million years ago, uplift and erosion gradually spread to the eastern foreland of the Rocky Mountains, which resulted in the canyons and rock formations that border the Llano from the Pleistocene (3 million years) (see also Geology of the Texas Panhandle ).
economy
The most important cities in this very sparsely populated region are Amarillo , Lubbock , Midland and Odessa in Texas and Hobbs in New Mexico .
Due to the climate, arable farming is only possible with artificial irrigation. Large amounts of water are taken from the Ogallala aquifer below the table land , mainly for the cultivation of cotton . More recently, the region has become economically interesting due to oil and gas deposits.
Literary meaning
The Llano Estacado became known in German-speaking countries through the writer Karl May , who lets some of his stories (including The Spirit of Llano Estakado , Winnetou III , Part 2 ) take place in this region. May describes the Llano as a practically waterless desert with only a single central oasis , which is known only to a few initiated. May translates the name as “marked level” and explains it by the fact that the routes through the area were marked with stakes driven into the ground. Criminals known as stakemen moved the stakes in such a way that travelers were led in a circle and then robbed, almost defenseless from thirst. There is no evidence of the authenticity of May's descriptions, especially since the natural vegetation of the plain is a high grass steppe and by no means a desert.
Web links
- Llano Estacado in the Texas Handbook
- Entry in the Karl May Wiki with quotations
Coordinates: 33 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ N , 102 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ W.