A stream has carved a canyon in the Gray Mountain Monocline, a hogback ridge along the eastern flank of the Kaibab Uplift (along the south side of Arizona Highway 64).
In the small town of San Manuel, Arizona, this is one of the world's largest and most productive copper smelters. In 1988 the former owners invested 149 million dollars to replace the old furnace with a new Outokumpu flash smelting furnace. Concentrate treatment capacity was expanded to a million tons a year and capture 98 percent of the sulfur.
The Huachuca Mountains are located directly west of the city of Sierra Vista, Arizona. These mountains range in elevation from 3,934 feet at the base to 9,455 feet at the top of Miller Peak. The Huachuca Mountains provide a study of a location that is experiencing rapid population growth in a formerly rural area. Sierra Vista's expansion is pushing population right up along the eastern base of the mountains and will provide an opportunity to study how growth along the urban-wildland interface affects wildfires.
The Image Processing Lab at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory produced this photomosaic of Mercury using computer software and techniques developed for use in processing planetary data.
This is New Mexico's spring-fed Zuni Salt Lake which concentrates salt and is considered by the Zuni people to be the sacred Ma’l Oyattsik’i, the Salt Woman. The Salt Woman is now threatened by the Salt River Project. The nation’s third-largest public utility is seeking to open an 18,000-acre strip mine at Fence Lake, ten miles from Zuni Salt Lake. To settle its coal dust, the Salt River Project plans to pump 85 gallons of water a minute from the aquifers that feed the lake for the 40 years of the mine’s planned operation.
Arizona's Santa Cruz River drains most of Saguaro National Park but since this is part of the Sonora Desert, it is an ephemeral stream in many places. The town of Pantano, Arizona is seen in the left-center of the Photograph.
Extending 30 mi south from Cuba through Sandoval and Rio Arriba Counties, and directly east of the Rio Puerco, the Nacimiento Mountains prominent points include Pajarito Peak (9,040 ft), San Miguel Mt. (9,473 ft) and Nacimiento Peak (9,801 ft). The range is partly within the Santa Fe National Forest.