earth science

Southern Rocky Mountains

Southern Rocky Mountains is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Southern Rocky Mountains rather than just read about it. In short: The Southern Rocky Mountains are a major subregion of the Rocky Mountains of North America located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming, the central and western portions of Colorado, the northern portion of New Mexico, and extreme eastern portions of Utah. The Southern Rocky Mountains are also commonly known as the Southern Rockies, and since the highest peaks are located in the State of Colorado…

Key takeaways

Southern Rocky Mountains belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Southern Rocky Mountains to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Southern Rocky Mountains from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Southern Rocky Mountains are a major subregion of the Rocky Mountains of North America located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming, the central and western portions of Colorado, the northern portion of New Mexico, and extreme eastern portions of Utah. The Southern Rocky Mountains are also commonly known as the Southern Rockies, and since the highest peaks are located in the State of Colorado, they are sometimes known as the Colorado Rockies, although many important ranges and peaks rise in the other three states. The Southern Rockies include the highest mountain ranges of the Rocky Mountains and include all 30 of the highest major peaks of the Rockies. The Southern Rocky Mountains are generally divided from the Western Rocky Mountains by the Green River and the Colorado River below the Green River. The Southern Rockies are divided from the Central Rocky Mountains by South Pass in Wyoming and the drainage running east from the pass down the Sweetwater River and the North Platte River; and the drainage running southwest from the pass down Pacific Creek and Sandy Creek to the Green River. This divide between the Southern Rockies and the Central Rockies provided the lowest elevation traverse of the Rocky Mountain region for the historic Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the California Trail. The southern end of the Rocky Mountains are considered to be the Jemez Mountains and the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. Mountains south of here in N.M. are classified as the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains ecoregion using the EPA Ecoregions System. This article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least 100 meters (330 feet) of topographic prominence, and a major summit as a summit with at least 500 meters (1,600 feet) of topographic prominence. An ultra-prominent summit is a summit with at least 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) of topographic prominence. All elevations in this article include an elevation adjustment from the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD 29) to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). For further information, please see this United States National Geodetic Survey note.

Mountain ranges The following table lists the mountain ranges and subranges of the Southern Rocky Mountains with their highest summit.

Mountain peaks

Highest summits The following sortable table lists the 57 mountain peaks of the Southern Rocky Mountains with at least 4,000 meters (13,123.4 ft) of topographic elevation and at least 500 meters (1,640.4 ft) of topographic prominence.

Most prominent summits The following sortable table lists the three ultra prominent summits of the Southern Rocky Mountains (with at least 1,500 meters (4,921.3 ft) of topographic prominence.)

Most isolated summits The following sortable table lists the 15 most topographically isolated peaks of the Southern Rocky Mountains with a topographic isolation of at least 50 kilometers (31.07 mi) and a topographic prominence of at least 500 meters (1,640.4 ft).

Easternmost summits The following sortable table lists progressively the easternmost Rocky Mountain summits of their respective elevation.

Mountain passes

The following sortable table lists the paved mountain passes and highway summits of the Southern Rocky Mountains.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Southern Rocky Mountains

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Southern Rocky Mountains claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Southern Rocky Mountains before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Southern Rocky Mountains ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Southern Rocky Mountains

In research: Southern Rocky Mountains appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Southern Rocky Mountains in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Southern Rocky Mountains is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Climate of the Rocky Mountains, Geography of Colorado, Geography of New Mexico, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Southern Rocky Mountains outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Southern Rocky Mountains in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Southern Rocky Mountains means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Southern Rocky Mountains out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Southern Rocky Mountains in simple terms?

Why does Southern Rocky Mountains matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Southern Rocky Mountains?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Southern Rocky Mountains.