The Gallina 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.
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75° on Nov. 11, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1938. Next is 72° in 1953.
Gallina’s center stands about 7,590 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 7,250 ft to 8,580 ft, a difference of 1,330 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cerro Jarocito, about 9,910 ft, 13 miles south-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Chinle Group (sandstone, mudstone, conglomerate), from the Middle Triassic to Late Triassic, 202 to 247 million years old.
The section below crosses 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. 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, conglomerate. Age: Late Pennsylvanian to Permian, 284 to 307 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone, conglomerate. Age: Middle Triassic to Late Triassic, 202 to 247 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Granodiorite, diorite, gabbro. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.7 to 1.8 billion years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Granitic, gneiss. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 1.7 billion years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale, limestone. Age: Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic, 145 to 175 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 100 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 3 smaller units along the line are not listed.
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 Gallina reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Rio Capulin, the Rio Gallina, the Rio Chama and the Rio Grande: about 1,720 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Paz Ramirez Lake, Amistad Reservoir, Elephant Butte Reservoir and Caballo Reservoir.
760 miles of the trip are on the Rio Grande.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Gallina; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Gallina has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 34 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 13 inches of water.
On November 14 Gallina normally reaches 54° and falls to 23°. The record high is 72°, in 1999; the record low 3°, in 2000. The most rain on this date, 0.43 in, fell in 1968.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1938 at Cuba, 18 miles south-southwest, 680 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
