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Sierra Madre del Sur

 
Dictionary: Si·er·ra Ma·dre del Sur   (sē-ĕr'ə mä'drā dĕl sūr', syĕr'ä mä'drĕ) pronunciation

A mountain range of southern Mexico along the Pacific coast.

 

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Columbia Encyclopedia: Sierra Madre
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Sierra Madre (syā'rä mä'THrā), chief mountain system of Mexico, consisting of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Sierra Madre Occidental, and the Sierra Madre del Sur and forming the dissected edges of the vast central Mexican plateau; a volcanic belt along the plateau's southern edge links the three sierras. Extending from northwest to southeast through Mexico from the U.S. border, the rugged Sierra Madres, 6,000-12,000 ft (1,829-3,658 m) high, with deep, steep-sided canyons (barrancas), have long been a barrier to east-west travel. The terrain ranges from permanently snow-covered peaks to hot, tropical valleys; and from the humid, thickly vegetated seaward slopes to the dry, largely barren interior-facing slopes. Agricultural products vary according to the climate. Lumbering is done in the N Sierra Madre Occidental. The Sierra Madres have a great wealth of minerals including iron ore, lead, silver, and gold. The mountains are sparsely populated, with settlement limited to mining towns and agricultural communities. The Sierra Madres hold good potential for hydroelectric-power development, and several stations have been built in the northern ranges. The Sierra Madre Oriental (ōryĕntäl'), beginning in barren hills S of the Rio Grande, runs for c.700 mi (1,130 km) roughly parallel to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, ranging from 10 to 200 mi (16-320 km) inland. It reaches an elevation of 18,700 ft (5,700 m) in Citlaltépetl, which belongs also to the volcanic belt, Cordillera de Anáhuac. This belt, which divides Mexico in half at about lat. 19° N and includes the peaks Popocatépetl and Iztaccihuatl, on the other end joins the Sierra Madre Occidental (ōk'sēdĕntäl'). This range, paralleling the Pacific coast for c.1,000 mi (1,610 km), extends SE from Arizona. Its main escarpment is more abrupt than that of the eastern cordillera. From c.5,000 ft (1,520 m) in the north, elevations reach over 10,000 ft (3,048 m) in the south. The Sierra Madre del Sur (dĕl sʊr') is a tumbled, broken mass of uptilted mountains that touch the Pacific coast but form into no clearly defined range. It spreads over S Mexico between the volcanic belt and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and forms the natural harbor of Acapulco.


Wikipedia: List of mountain ranges
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The World Mountain ranges

This is a list of mountain ranges organized alphabetically by continent. Ranges on other astronomical bodies are listed afterward.

Contents

Earth

By length

By Continent

Asia

See Category:Mountain ranges of Asia

Europe

North America

Central America

See also Category:Mountain ranges of Central America and the Caribbean and Category:Mountains of Central America

South America

Africa

Antarctic

Australia

Pacific

Ocean

The Moon

By IAU convention, lunar mountain ranges are given Latin names.

Iapetus

See also

References


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "List of mountain ranges" Read more