The Tularosa 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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Tularosa’s center stands about 4,520 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,340 ft to 4,890 ft, a difference of 550 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Ortega Peak, about 7,600 ft, 15 miles southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Piedmont alluvial deposits (unconsolidated), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 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.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Sandstone, carbonate, evaporite. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Permian, 284 to 299 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated, gypsum. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.8 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, arkose. Age: Late Pennsylvanian to Permian, 295 to 304 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.
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.
