The Jemez Mountains (,
Tewa
The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo people, Pueblo Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of San ...
: ''Tsąmpiye'ip'įn'',
Navajo: ''Dził Łizhinii'') are a group of
mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...
s in
Rio Arriba,
Sandoval
Sandoval is a habitational surname of Spanish language, Spanish origin. It primarily originates from Sandoval de la Reina, Spain, earlier called ''Sannoval'', which is a blend word of Latin ''saltus'' (meaning 'grove' or 'wood') and Latin ''novalis ...
, and
Los Alamos counties,
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
Numerous
Puebloan Indian tribes have lived in the Jemez Mountains region for centuries before the
Spanish arrived in New Mexico. The Pueblo Nations of this region are the
Towa-speaking
Jemez people, after whom the mountain range is named, and the Keres-speaking
Zia People. Pueblos in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico consisted of compact multistoried buildings which enclosed small plazas. Most of their several hundred rooms were probably occupied by single families, but some were storerooms.
The Jemez Mountains include climates varying from desert at the lowest elevations to sub-arctic conditions at the highest elevations. A significant diversity of climate and vegetation is linked to gradients in elevation and the region's topographical features.
The highest point in the range is
Chicoma Mountain (also spelled as Tschicoma or Tchicoma) at an elevation of . The town of
Los Alamos and the
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...
adjoin the eastern side of the range while the town of
Jemez Springs is to the west.
Pajarito Mountain Ski Area is the only ski area in the Jemez.
New Mexico State Highway 4 is the primary road that provides vehicular access to locations in the Jemez Mountains.
Geology
The Jemez Mountains lie in north-central New Mexico, to the north of the
Albuquerque Basin in the
Rio Grande rift,
and span altitudes from 1,590 meters at the Rio Grande to 3,526 meters at the peak of Tschicoma Peak. This geological demarcation encompasses approximately 543,522 hectares, according to Smith et al.'s 1976 study.
They are a classic example of intracontinental
volcanism and consist of a broadly circular ridge surrounding the
Valles Caldera. The latter is the type location for
resurgent caldera eruptions.
The mountains lie on the intersection of the western margin of the Rio Grande Rift and the
Jemez Lineament.
Here
magma
Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as ''lava'') is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also ...
produced from the fertile rock of an ancient
subduction zone has repeatedly found its way to the surface along faults produced by rifting. This has produced a long-lived volcanic field, with the earliest eruptions beginning at least 13 million years ago
and continuing almost to the present day. The most recent known
eruption is the
obsidian
Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...
of the Banco Bonito flow, dated to 68.3 ± 1.5 thousand years before the present.
Most of the volume of the range is composed of pre-caldera
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
s,
andesite
Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...
s, and
dacites of the
Keres Group and
Polvadera Group, but there are extensive
outflow sheets of the
Bandelier Tuff and young
rhyolite
Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture (geology), texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained matri ...
s associated with caldera resurgence, all assigned to the
Tewa Group.
The two most recent
caldera
A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...
-forming eruptions, dated to about 1.62 million and 1.256 million years ago,
produced massive
ignimbrite
Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surrou ...
deposits known as the Otowi and Tshirege members, respectively, of the Bandelier Tuff. Much of the material in these deposits now forms the
Pajarito Plateau, a scenic region of
canyons
A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...
and
mesas on which Los Alamos is situated.
Redondo Peak, the second-highest summit in the range at 11,254 ft (3431 m), is a
resurgent dome in the middle of the Valles Caldera, which also contains several smaller volcanos. In the Jemez Mountains, the Quaternary volcanic field, encompasses the Valles caldera and the connected Bandelier Tuff. The caldera is segregated by these structures and its rim into multiple lush grass valleys (''valles'' in Spanish, hence the name).
The western part of the Valles Caldera is underlain by a
seismic low-velocity zone with an area of and extending to depths of . This zone consists of at least 10% molten rock and represents a new pulse of magmatic activity. This is monitored by the Los Alamos Seismic Network, which has detected no unusual volcano-seismic activity since it was installed in the 1970s.
Public use
Much of the range is federal land, including
Santa Fe National Forest,
Bandelier National Monument, and the
Valles Caldera National Preserve. State lands include
Fenton Lake State Park at in
Sandoval County. Hiking trails, including a section of the
Continental Divide Trail
The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (in short Continental Divide Trail, CDT) is a United States National Scenic Trail with a length measured by the Continental Divide Trail Coalition of between the U.S. border with Chihuahua (state), Chi ...
, crisscross the range and lead to many of the summits, although some regions are closed to hikers either because of environmental restrictions or because they are on the territory of
Santa Clara Pueblo or private landholders. (Access to pueblo lands is available by permit.) The summits are generally easy to climb (in good weather) and require no technical climbing skills, but
rock climbing
Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending climbing routes, routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in c ...
is popular on some of the basalt cliffs near
Los Alamos,
Caja del Rio and elsewhere in the range. There are several hot and cold springs throughout the mountains, including the popular Spence Springs and Seven Springs, as well as
Soda Dam. There are five official established campsites in the mountains, and many additional locations for backpackers as well. Another popular recreational activity is fishing in the
Jemez River and San Antonio Creek. The mountains also are home to Pajarito Mountain, a small downhill
ski area.
Cross country skiing and snowshoeing are available on trails in the winter. However, not every winter produces enough snow to support activities that require significant snowfall. The region is prone to
forest fire
A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire ( in Australia), dese ...
s because of the tendency for spring weather to be dry and windy, creating conditions under which fires caused by human activities or lightning can spread rapidly. The
Las Conchas Fire in 2011 was the most recent large wildfire. Parts of Los Alamos National Laboratory were also damaged, although none of the laboratory's
special nuclear materials were threatened or released.
Historical communities
Around the early 14th century, the Towa people built
pueblo
Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...
s in the Jemez Mountains. The pueblos include Unshagi, Nanishagi, and
Giusewa pueblos. Before the arrival of the
Spanish in the 17th century, the area was well-populated, and had established farming communities and trade systems. Outside of the pueblos, the ruins of around 300 small structures have been discovered.
Potsherds have been found near a majority of the structures, and arrowheads have been found in many of the surrounding areas.

When the Spanish began their colonization efforts in the 17th century, they heard the Towa word Hemes, meaning "the people." They then translated it to the
Spanish spelling, Jemez. The Spanish forced the Towa living in Giusewa pueblo (the most significant pueblo of the region at the time) to abandon their traditional practice, and to adopt
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. From the very beginning, the Jemez resisted the Spanish oppression, initiating two uprisings against them prior to the occurrence of the Pueblo Revolt in 1680.
After the
Pueblo Revolt in 1680, the Spanish set about a campaign of reoccupation in 1692. the Towa were able to resist for longer because of the distance of the Jemez mountains from the
Rio Grande Valley, which was where the main concentration of Spanish activity was. Giusewa was reoccupied in 1694, and revolted again in 1696. This revolt was ultimately a failure, and many Towa people sought refuge among the
Navajo. In 1703, the majority of individuals had come back to the Jemez Valley, reconstructing their pueblo. In 1838, as Pecos Pueblo, a different village speaking Towa in the Galisteo Basin, was deserted, its seventeen inhabitants relocated to Jemez Pueblo.
Modern communities
Census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...
s within the Jemez Mountains include
Jemez Springs and
Jemez Pueblo (referred to as
Walatowa in Towa). Jemez Springs is a small town with a population of 198 according to the 2020 census. In the Jemez Pueblo, more than 90% of around 3400 members speak the Towa language.
Within this community, all decisions are made by the tribal government, which are heavily influenced by traditional connections to the Jemez land.
Increases in wildfires and bark-beetle outbreaks in the most recent decade are likely related to extreme drought and high temperatures during this period.
Flora
There are over 720 plant species in the Jemez Mountain region with six community types that include, subalpine grassland, spruce-fir, mixed conifer, ponderosa pine, pinyon juniper, and juniper-grassland.
Adding a touch of color to the landscape are wildflowers like alpine larkspur, forget-me-nots, saxifrages, and sedges. Ponderosa pine are found between 2100 and 2300 meters on the east side of the Jemez Mountains while mixed conifer forests are found between 2100 and 3200 meters in elevation.
Spruce-fir forests are mostly found at the summits of mountains due to suitable climate conditions.
Additionally, oak shrublands have emerged on certain mountain slopes and in high mountain meadows as a result of wildfires. The
San Pedro Parks Wilderness in the northwest region, White Rock Canyon along the Rio Grande, and the desert shrublands at the extreme southwest part of the Jemez Mountains, particularly capture attention due to their distinctive plant life.
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Fauna

The Jemez Mountains house the American elk (wapiti), the golden-mantled ground squirrel, the Gunnison's prairie dog, American beavers, black bears, and mountain lions. The Jemez Mountains are also home to a federally endangered species, the
Jemez Mountains salamander. This species is mostly found in mixed-conifer forests and was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2013.
The Jemez Mountains salamander's habitat is in danger due to forest fires, increased tree density, the destruction of habitat, and climate change.
References
External links
*
Santa Fe National Forest (Jemez Ranger District site)
First Photo from Space identifies Jemez Mountains as "Valle Grande Mts"
{{Authority control
Mountain ranges of New Mexico
Volcanoes of New Mexico
Volcanic fields of New Mexico
Landforms of Sandoval County, New Mexico
Landforms of Rio Arriba County, New Mexico
Landforms of Los Alamos County, New Mexico
Landforms of Santa Fe County, New Mexico
Volcanic groups
Pleistocene volcanism