The Naturita plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny; warmer
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
Mostly sunny; cooler
Showers likely
Showers likely; cooler
Naturita’s center stands about 5,430 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,350 ft to 6,100 ft, a difference of 750 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Round Mountain, about 8,060 ft, 13 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Morrison Fm, Summerville Fm, and Entrada Sandstone (sandstone, mudstone, claystone), from the Late Jurassic, 145 to 164 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 9×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, shale, conglomerate. Age: Early Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous, 66 to 145 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone, claystone. Age: Late Jurassic, 145 to 164 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Naturita reaches the Gulf of California by way of the San Miguel, the Dolores and the Colorado: about 1,170 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Mead, Lake Powell, Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu.
Seldom reaches the sea. Dams and canals now take nearly all of the Colorado before its old delta in Mexico.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Naturita; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
