The Sierra Madre Oriental is part of a chain that stretches across three continents.
Stretching about 1,000 kilometers (700 miles), the Sierra Madre Oriental is a range of folded mountains in northeastern Mexico. Formed about 60 million years ago, the mountains are composed of limestone and shale and contain major deposits of copper, lead, and zinc. Some peaks rise more than 3,600 meters (12,000 feet).
The image above shows the rugged folds and valleys of the Sierra Madre Oriental. The image was acquired on October 28, 2020, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The mountain range runs adjacent to several large cities, including Monterrey (capital of Nueva León state) and Saltillo (capital of Coahuila state).
The Sierra Madre Oriental is one of three main mountain ranges surrounding the Mexican Plateau, which covers much of northern and central Mexico. Each range bears the name “Sierra Madre”—Spanish for “Mother Mountain Range.”
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Image via NASA Earth Observatory
