Tecozautla (

Otomi The Otomi (; ) are an Indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano) region. The Otomi are an Indigenous people of the Americas who inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguistically rel ...

: Masofo) is a town and one of the 84

municipalities of Hidalgo Hidalgo is a state in central Mexico divided into 84 municipalities. According to the 2020 Mexican census, Hidalgo is the 16th most populous state with inhabitants and the 26th largest by land area spanning . Municipalities in Hidalgo are a ...

, in central-eastern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The municipality covers an area of 575.6 km². The name derives from the

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

words "tetl", meaning "stone"; "cozaqui", meaning "yellow thing"; and "tla", meaning "place of"; making the entire meaning of Tecozautla "place where yellow earth abounds". As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 31,609. In 2017 there were 2,415 inhabitants who spoke an

indigenous language An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by its indigenous peoples. Indigenous languages are not necessarily national languages but they can be; for example, Aymara is both an indigen ...

, primarily

Mezquital Otomi Northwestern Otomi is a Native American language of central Mexico. Varieties There are two varieties with limited (c. 78%) intelligibility, sometimes considered separate languages: *Mezquital Otomi (''Otomí del Valle del Mezquital''). The aut ...

. The town was declared a "

Pueblo Mágico 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 settlemen ...

" in 2015.

Toponymy

The name ''Tecozautla'' comes from the

náhuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller pop ...

''tetl'' -stone-, ''cozauqui'' -yellow thing- and ''tla'' which means -place of-; which together means "Place where the yellow earth abounds".The etymological origin of the name of a

Geography

Relief and hydrographic

As for

physiography Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, h ...

it is located within the province of the

Neovolcanic Axis The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (), 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 have snow all year long, and dur ...

; within the subprovince of Sierras y Llanuras de Querétaro and Hidalgo. As for its

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

it corresponds to the

Neogene The Neogene ( ,) is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period million years ago. It is the second period of th ...

period (91.86%),

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

(4.0%) and

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

(2.0%). With Extrusive igneous type rocks: basalt (29.86%), acid tuff (26.0%), volcanoclastic (12.0%), basic tuff-basic volcanic breccia (5.0%), acid tuff-acid volcanic breccia (5.0%) and rhyolite-acid tuff (2.0%); sedimentary: sandstone–conglomerate (12.0%) and limestone (4.0%); soil: alluvial (2.0%). Regarding

pedology Pedology (from Greek: πέδον, ''pedon'', "soil"; and λόγος, ''logos'', "study") is a discipline within soil science which focuses on understanding and characterizing soil formation, evolution, and the theoretical frameworks for modelin ...

the dominant soil is

phaeozem A Phaeozem in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is a dark soil with a high Soil#Base saturation percentage, base status, but without a secondary carbonates within one metre of the soil surface. Most Phaeozems correlate with the Ud ...

(45.86%),

vertisol A vertisol is a Soil Order in the USDA soil taxonomy and a Reference Soil Group in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). It is also defined in many other soil classification systems. In the Australian Soil Classification it is c ...

(26.0%),

calcisol A Calcisol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is a soil with a substantial secondary accumulation of lime. Calcisols are common in calcareous parent materials and widespread in arid and semi-arid environments. Formerly Calcisols ...

(19.0%) and

leptosol A Leptosol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is a very shallow soil over continuous rock or a deeper soil that is extremely rich in coarse fragments (gravelly and/or stony). Leptosols cover approximately 1.7 billion hectares o ...

(7.0%). With regard to

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

it is positioned in the hydrological region of the

Pánuco River The Pánuco River (, ), also known as the ''Río de Canoas'', is a river in Mexico fed by several tributaries including the Moctezuma River and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The river is approximately long and passes through or borders the ...

; in the basins of the

Moctezuma River The Moctezuma River (Río Moctezuma) is a river in Mexico that drains the eastern side of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (Sierra Nevada). It is a tributary of the Pánuco River and flows through the Mexican states of Hidalgo, Querétaro, and San ...

; within the sub-basins of the

Tula River The Tula River () is a river in Hidalgo State in central Mexico, and a tributary of the Moctezuma River. Geography It runs through the city of Tula de Allende and begins as a drainage channel for the Valley of Mexico, which contains the metrop ...

(35.0%), San Juan River (30.0%), Tecozautla River (21.0%) and Alfajayucan River (14.0%). It also has a dam, wells and springs.

Weather

The following climates are located in the municipal territory with their respective percentage: Semi-dry semi-warm (54.0%) and semi-dry temperate (46.0%). With an average annual climatological temperature of 17 °C with a total annual precipitation of 517 millimeters.

Ecology

The

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

in the municipality is made up of a variety of trees such as oak, oyamel, biznaga, pitaya, huizache, maguey, cactus, organ and a large number of pirul trees, and some fruit trees. The

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

is made up of rabbits, rattlesnakes, hares, squirrels, ocelots, hawks, opossums, armadillos, deer, chameleons, coyotes, buzzards, insects and arachnids.

Notes

References

Municipalities of Hidalgo (state) Populated places in Hidalgo (state) Otomi settlements {{Hidalgo-geo-stub Pueblos Mágicos