The Villanueva 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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Villanueva’s center stands about 5,860 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,760 ft to 6,480 ft, a difference of 720 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Punta de la Mesa de San Juan Jose, about 7,690 ft, 13 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Glorieta Sandstone, from the Permian, 273 to 290 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 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. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Permian, 260 to 290 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, carbonate, evaporite. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, limestone, dolostone. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 324 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Mixed-clastic, anhydrite, dolostone. Age: Permian, 260 to 273 million years old. About 3 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 Villanueva reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Pecos and the Rio Grande: about 1,470 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Paz Ramirez Lake, Amistad Reservoir, Red Bluff Reservoir and Lake McMillan.
410 miles of the trip are on the Pecos.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Villanueva; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
