The Organ Mountains
The Organ Mountains are a rugged mountain range in southern New Mexico in the southwestern United States. They are about 40 miles north of El Paso, Texas and 10 miles east of Las Cruces.
The Organ Mountains are at the southern end of a long line of mountains on the east side of the Rio Grande's rift valley. The range is nearly contiguous with the San Andres Mountains to the north and the Franklin Mountains to the south, but the Organs are very different geologically. Whereas the San Andres and Franklin Mountains are both formed from west-dipping fault blocks of mostly sedimentary strata (with limestone most prominent), the Organ Mountains are made primarily of igneous rock (intrusive granite and extrusive rhyolite). Their name reflects their similarity in appearance (particularly the granite "needles" in the highest part of the range) with pipes that would be part of a pipe organ.
Local legend has it that many of these peaks were first climbed in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s by the Germans who came over to America along with Werner Van Braun. The eastern face of the mountain range faces White Sands Missile Range.
A few days ago I took an ultra high resolution picture of the Organs. After processing and cropping the final picture is roughly 1.1 Gigapixels. To see this picture go to URL: http://share.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=17513
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The Organ Mountains are at the southern end of a long line of mountains on the east side of the Rio Grande's rift valley. The range is nearly contiguous with the San Andres Mountains to the north and the Franklin Mountains to the south, but the Organs are very different geologically. Whereas the San Andres and Franklin Mountains are both formed from west-dipping fault blocks of mostly sedimentary strata (with limestone most prominent), the Organ Mountains are made primarily of igneous rock (intrusive granite and extrusive rhyolite). Their name reflects their similarity in appearance (particularly the granite "needles" in the highest part of the range) with pipes that would be part of a pipe organ.
Local legend has it that many of these peaks were first climbed in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s by the Germans who came over to America along with Werner Van Braun. The eastern face of the mountain range faces White Sands Missile Range.
A few days ago I took an ultra high resolution picture of the Organs. After processing and cropping the final picture is roughly 1.1 Gigapixels. To see this picture go to URL: http://share.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=17513
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