Mexico Essay
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Area: 1,972,550 sq kmPopulation: 93,985,848 (July 1995 est.)Capital: MexicoCurrency: 1 New Mexican peso (Mex$) = 100 centavosLanguages: Spanish, various Mayan dialectsNational product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $728.7 billion (1994 est.)Religions: nominally Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%Government type: federal republic operating under a centralized government Southward from its 1,500-mile- (2,400-kilometer-) long border with the United States lies the Estados Unidos Mexicanos. A country with slightly more than 750,000 square miles (1,940,000 square kilometers) in area, Mexico has a vast array of mineral resources, limited agricultural land, and a rapidly growing population. These factors are the basis for many of the country's present problems as well as opportunities for future development. The nation is struggling to modernize its economy. With more than 80 million people in the mid-1980s, Mexico's overall population density exceeds 110 per square mile (42 per square kilometer). More than half of its inhabitants live in the country's central core, while the arid north and the tropical south are sparsely settled. The long-held stereotype of Mexico as a slow-paced country with a population consisting mainly of subsistence farmers has little validity. Petroleum and tourism dominate the economy, and industrialization is increasing in many parts of the nation. Internal migration from the countryside has caused urban centers to grow dramatically: more than two thirds of all Mexicans now live in cities. Mexico City, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 16 million people, is the largest city in the world. While still low by United States standards, the nation's gross national product per capita rose significantly during the 1970s. Despite impressive social and economic gains, since 1981 Mexico has been wracked by severe inflation and an enormous foreign debt brought on in large part by precipitous declines in the value of petroleum products. NATURAL ENVIRONMENT Geologically, Mexico is located in one of the Earth's most dynamic areas. It is a part of the "Ring of Fire," a region around the Pacific Ocean highlighted by active volcanism and frequent seismic activity. Within the context of plate tectonics, a theory developed to explain the creation of major landform features around the world, Mexico is situated on the western, or leading, edge of the huge North American Plate. Its interaction with the Pacific, Cocos, and Caribbean plates has given rise over geologic time to the Earth-building processes that created most of Mexico. Towering peaks, like Citlaltepetl (Orizaba) at some 18,000 feet (5,500 meters), are extremely young in geologic terms (late Tertiary) and are examples of the volcanic forces that built much of central Mexico. The spectacular eruption of the volcano Chinchon in 1981 was more powerful than that of Mount St. Helens in the United States a year earlier and led to widespread devastation. Much of the complexity found in southern Mexico's physiography is related to the interaction of three tectonic plates. Such interaction creates regions that are often highly unstable, producing numerous and severe Earth movements. A 1985 quake, with an epicenter off the coast of Acapulco, caused billions of dollars in damage nationwide, destroyed hundreds of buildings in Mexico City, and killed several thousand people. It is on this often unstable and dynamically active physical environment that the Mexican people must build their nation. Land Regions Mexico can be divided into eight major physiographic regions. The largest and most significant in terms of human habitation is the Mexican Plateau. Extending from the isthmus of Tehuantepec northward to the United States border, the region consists of a central plateau and its dissected borders. The central plateau tilts gently from north to south. At its northern end it is about 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) above sea level and rises to more than 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) south of Mexico City. Throughout the plateau, somewhat flat basins are interrupted by mountainous outcrops. The plateau can be subdivided into two major sections. The Mesa del Norte begins near the international border and ends around San Luis Potosi. In this arid lower part of the plateau, interior drainage predominates with few permanent streams. On its west side the mesa is flanked by the largely volcanic Sierra Madre Occidental, with an average height of 8,000 to 9,000 feet (2,400 to 2,700 meters). It has been highly dissected by westward-flowing streams that eroded a series of deep barrancas, or canyons. The most spectacular of these is the Barranca del Cobre, Mexico's equivalent of the Grand Canyon. The Sierra Madre Oriental, a range of folded mountains formed of shale and limestone, is on the east side of the mesa. With average elevations similar to those of the Sierra Madre Occidental, these dissected highlands have peaks that reach 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). The Mesa Central stretches from San Luis Potosi to the volcanic axis south of Mexico City. Formed largely by volcanic action, the general plateau surface of this mesa is higher, moister, and generally flatter than the Mesa del Norte. The Mesa Central is divided into a series of fairly flat intermountain basins separated by eroded volcanic peaks. These basins are generally quite fertile and have been the most densely populated portions of Mexico for several hundred years. The largest valleys--such as those of Mexico City, Puebla, and Guadalajara--rarely exceed 100 square miles (260 square kilometers) in area, while many others are quite small. The traditional breadbasket of the country, the Bajio of Guanajuato, is located in the northern part of the mesa. Many of the basins were sites of major lakes, like those formerly located around Mexico City that were drained to facilitate European settlement. The weak, structurally unstable soils that remain have caused numerous buildings to shift on their foundations and over many years to slowly sink into the ground. The volcanic axis--with such spectacular snowcapped peaks as Popocatepetl at 17,887 feet (5,452 meters), Ixtaccihuatl at 17,342 feet (5,286 meters), and Toluca at 15,000 feet (4,572 meters)--forms the southern boundary of the Mexican Plateau. On the east and west sides of the plateau lie that country's coastal lowlands. The Gulf Coastal Plain extends from the Texas border to the Yucatan peninsula, a distance of some 900 miles (1,450 kilometers). Characterized by lagoons and low-lying swampy areas, the triangular northern portion is more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide near the border and tapers rapidly toward the south. Inland toward the abrupt escarpment of the Sierra Madre Oriental is a series of gently undulating plains dotted by occasional hills and low mountains. Near Tampico an extension of the Sierra Madre Occidental reaches the sea and interrupts the plain's continuity. To the south of Tampico it is narrow and irregular. In several places low hills and isolated volcanic peaks meet the sea and subdivide the plain. It widens at the northern end of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and then encompasses the limestone formations that underlie the Yucatan peninsula. The Pacific Lowlands are much narrower and less well defined than their east-coast counterpart. Extending from the Mexicali Valley in the north, they terminate near Tuxpan nearly 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) to the south. Bounded on the east by the steep-sided Sierra Madre Occidental, the lowlands are in fact a series of coastal terraces, mesas, and small basins interspersed with river deltas and restricted coastal strips. From the 1940s parts of this arid region have been irrigated for agricultural production. West of the Pacific Lowlands is the Baja California peninsula. This relatively isolated strip of land is nearly 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) long but seldom more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide. The central core is formed by a huge granitic fault block with peaks of more than 9,000 feet (2,700 meters) in the San Pedro Martir and Sierra de Juarez mountain ranges. The gently sloping western side of these ranges is in contrast to the steep eastern escarpment, which makes access from the gulf extremely difficult. Rugged surface features and extreme aridity have limited human settlement, though several stark coastal landscapes have become popular tourist sites. Immediately south of the Mexican Plateau is the Balsas Depression, which takes its name from the major river draining the region. This low-lying area is hot and dry with a distinctive landscape. The depression is formed of a series of small, irregular basins interrupted by hilly areas. The Southern Highlands are a series of highly dissected mountain ranges and plateaus. On the western side a series of mountain ranges known collectively as the Sierra Madre del Sur extend from approximately Puerto Vallarta to the Gulf of Tehuantepec. These low--7,000 to 8,000 feet (2,100 to 2,400 meters)--crystalline mountains often reach the sea and create a rugged coastal margin, part of which has become known as the "Mexican Riviera." Such picturesque coastal sites as Manzanillo, Ixtapa-Zihuatenejo, Acapulco, and Puerto Escondido have become favorite tourist destinations, while the less hospitable basins inland provide a difficult environment for traditional peasant farmers. East of the Sierra Madre del Sur is the Mesa del Sur, with numerous stream-eroded ridges...
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