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STS087-706-5 Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico November 1997
The folded, rugged, Sierra Madre Oriental (eastern), a southern extension of the Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada, can be seen in this west-northwest view. The Sierra Madre Oriental is the boundary of the dissected eastern edge of the High Mexican Central Plateau and the Gulf coastal plain. Beginning as barren hills south of the Rio Grande in northeastern Mexico, the Sierra Madre Oriental extend generally southward approximately 700 miles (1125 km), to near 19 degrees north latitude paralleling the coast of the western Gulf of Mexico. The average elevation of the mountain range is 7000 feet (2135 meters) with some peaks exceeding 10000 feet (3050 meters). A wealth of minerals including iron ore, lead, silver, and gold, are extracted from the mountain range. The city of Monterey, Mexico is discernible just inward toward the center from the left center of the image. Clouds cover the coastal plain in the bottom third of the image.
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