The Sierra de las Cruces, also popularly called Sierra del Monte de las Cruces, is a mountain range in Mexico, in its south central region, which delimits the valleys of Mexico and Cuautitlán in the Basin of Mexico, with

Toluca Valley The Toluca Valley is a valley in central Mexico, just west of the Valley of Mexico (Mexico City), the old name was Matlatzinco. The valley runs north–south for about , surrounded by mountains, the most imposing of which is the Nevado de Toluca Vo ...

as well as a part of the Lerma Basin. The

Battle of Monte de las Cruces The Battle of Monte de las Cruces was one of the pivotal battles of the early Mexican War of Independence, in October 1810. It was fought between the insurgent troops of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and Ignacio Allende against the New Spain royalist ...

took place in this mountain range, as well as the construction of the Cutzamala System. It is part of the Transversal Volcanic Axis, and represents the watershed of three hydrological basins: the

Lerma River The Lerma River ( es, Río Lerma) is Mexico's second longest river. It is a river in west-central Mexico that begins in Mexican Plateau at an altitude over above sea level, and ends where it empties into Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake, nea ...

, the

Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico w ...

(both of the endorheic type) and the Balsas River (of the exorheic type).

History

Due to the studies carried out in the mountains, it is considered that Sierra de las Cruces was formed next to the

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt ( es, Eje Volcánico Transversal), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks h ...

, which is considered a continental volcanic arc, formed since the recent Miocene epoch, with the La Catedral stratovolcano being the oldest with about 3.71 ± 0.40 million years. years., with an important activity during the Pliocene and Pleistocene formed by extensive lava flows and domes of andesitic-dacitic composition and calc-alkaline affinity, alternating with pyroclastic flows of blocks and ashes, pumice flows, pyroclastic surges, fall deposits, flows of debris and mud, as well as collapses resulting in debris avalanche deposits. Its entire structure rests in the southern area on Cretaceous limestone or on volcanic rocks from the basal mafic sequence of 7.1 million years, which makes it younger than the Miocene Tepoztlán formation; the northern part rests on a series of volcanic structures from the middle Miocene that correspond to the formation of the Sierra de Guadalupe, between 14 and 16 million years old, and the Sierra de la Muerta from the late Pliocene.

References

{{coord, 27, 58, N, 103, 42, W, display=title, region:MX_type:mountain_source:GNS-enwiki Mountain ranges of Mexico Landforms of Mexico City Landforms of the State of Mexico Landforms of Morelos