Sierra Madre Oriental

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Sierra Madre Oriental
Range
View from an airplane crossing Cerro San Rafael
Country	Mexico
States	Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Puebla, Querétaro
Highest point	Cerro San Rafael (Coahuila)
- elevation	3,700 m (12,139 ft)
- coordinates	25°22′N 100°33′W / 25.367°N 100.55°W / 25.367; -100.55

The Sierra Madre Oriental is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico, spanning 1000 km from Coahuila south through Nuevo León, southwest Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, and Hidalgo to northern Puebla, where it joins with the east-west running Eje Volcánico Transversal of central Mexico.

The highest point is Cerro San Rafael, at 3700 meters above sea level, is the highest point of the Sierra Madre Oriental and the state of Coahuila and the second in Mexico in isolation.^[1][2]

Mexico's Gulf Coastal Plain lies to the east of the range, between it and the Gulf of Mexico. The Mexican Plateau, which averages 1,100 metres in elevation, lies between the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre Occidental further west.

Highest major summits

The Highest Major Mountain Peaks of Sierra Madre Oriental

Rank	Mountain Peak	State	Mountain Range	Elevation	Prominence	Isolation
1	Cerro San Rafael[3] PB	Coahuila	Sierra Madre Oriental	3700.0003700 m 12,139 feet	1855.0001855 m 6,086 feet	00627.58628 km 390 miles
2	Sierra de la Marta[4] PB	Coahuila  Nuevo León	Sierra Madre Oriental	3700.0003700 m 12,139 feet	0000.000NA	00607.30607 km 377 miles
3	Cerro el Potosí PB	Nuevo León	Sierra Madre Oriental	3700.0003700 m 12,139 feet	1380.0001380 m 4,528 feet	00570.41570 km 354 miles

Ecology

The range is noted for its high biodiversity and large number of endemic species. The higher elevations of the range are home to the Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests. To the east, the Tamaulipan matorral occupies the ranges lower slopes in Nuevo Leon and northern Tamaulipas, while the Veracruz moist forests cover the lower slopes of the central range, and the eastern slopes at the southern end of the range are home to the Veracruz montane forests.

West of the range, the Mexican Plateau is home to deserts and xeric shrublands, including the Chihuahuan Desert to the north, the Meseta Central matorral on the central part of the plateau, and the Central Mexican matorral on the southern plateau.

Although separated from the main part of the Sierra Madre Oriental by the Rio Grande, the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park, southwest Texas are floristically part of the Sierra Madre Oriental, harboring sky islands of pine-oak forest.

See also

• Mountain peaks of México
• Mountain peaks of North America

References

External links

• Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests (World Wildlife Fund)

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