The Ojo Encino 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 1961. Next is 74° in 1973.
Ojo Encino’s center stands about 6,740 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,610 ft to 6,880 ft, a difference of 270 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Deer Mesa, about 7,470 ft, 7 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Ojo Alamo Formation (conglomerate-sandstone, shale), from the Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 23×. 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: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Mudstone, shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Claystone, sandstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 2 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 Ojo Encino reaches the Gulf of America by way of Encino Wash, Torreon Wash, the Arroyo Chico, the Rio Puerco and the Rio Grande: about 1,690 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 Ojo Encino; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Ojo Encino has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 17° in January. A normal year brings about 18 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 10 inches of water.
On November 14 Ojo Encino normally reaches 56° and falls to 25°. The record high is 70°, in 2025; the record low 10°, in 1993. The most rain on this date, 0.30 in, fell in 1997.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1961 at Torreon Navajo Mission, 14 miles southeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
