Горы Майя: Описание и охрана

Mountain range in northern Central America

The Maya Mountains are a mountain range located in Belize and eastern Guatemala, in Central America.

The Maya Mountains were known as the Cockscomb or Coxcomb Mountains to Baymen and later Belizeans at least until the mid 20th century. Their current appellation is thought to be in honour of the Mayan civilisation.

The range's highest peaks are Doyle's Delight at 3688 feet (1124 m) and Victoria Peak at 3680 feet (1122 m).

Nine streams with a Strahler order greater than 1 flow from the Mountains into the Caribbean Sea, namely, five tributaries of the Belize River, two tributaries of the Monkey River, and the Sittee River and Boom Creek.

Prominent karstic features within the Mountains include the Chiquibul Spring and Cave System, the Vaca Plateau, the Southern and Northern Boundary Faults, and possibly an aquifer contiguous with that of the Yucatán Peninsula.

The Mountains 'are the only source of igneous and metamorphic materials' in Belize. These are exposed in three plutons, i. e. Mountain Pine Ridge, Hummingbird Ridge, and the Cockscomb Basin. It has been recently suggested that the former was mined by stonemasons at Pacbitun for the manufacture and trade of stonetools, e. g. manos and metates.

Precipitation decreases from per annum in the northwestern extreme of the Mountains to per annum in its southeastern extreme.

Much of the Mountains is in protected areas spanning seventeen parks, reserves, sanctuaries, or monuments in southern Belize and northern Guatemala. + Protected areas encompassing the Maya Mountains. WDPA ID Name Type District Notes 3306 Chiquibul forest reserve Cayo – 3314 Columbia River forest reserve Toledo – 3311 Deep River forest reserve Toledo – 28850 Maya Mountain forest reserve Stann Creek – 3305 Mountain Pine Ridge forest reserve Cayo – 3307 Sibun River forest reserve Cayo – 12229 Sittee River forest reserve Stann Creek – 116297 Vaca forest reserve Cayo – 301932 Noj Kaax Me'en Eligio Panti national park Cayo – 20230 Chiquibul national park Cayo – 12241 Bladen nature reserve Toledo – 10579 Cockscomb Basin wildlife sanctuary Stann Creek – 20229 Caracol archaeological reserve Cayo – 301918 Victoria Peak natural monument Stann Creek – 30614 Montañas Mayas Chiquibul nature reserve Peten – 30618 San Román nature reserve Peten – 902858 Yaxhá Nakum Naranjo national park Peten –

Unauthorised farming and resource extraction by Guatemalans have been identified as a significant threats to Belize's protected areas bordering Peten. For instance, in 2008 an estimated 1,0001,500 xateros i. e. fishtail palm foragers were operating in the region, and by 2011 some 13,50020,000 acres had been cleared for various agricultural activities, thereby severing the ecologically important contiguity of Belizean forests to the Guatemalan Selva Maya. Furthermore, unlicensed interlopers often hunt for sustenance during their extended incursions, leading to worrying declines in wildlife populations, such as that of the white lipped peccary, which has been extirpated from 'was once the species' primary stronghold in Belize [i. e. Chiquibul].' Threats indigenous to Belize have also been identified, however, with demographic pressures deemed the most significant. The recent construction of the hydroelectric Chalillo Dam in the Mountains, for instance, 'sparked international controversy for its widespread ecological effects,' including the inundation of 2,400 acres of forested and riparian ecosystems, and exposure of downstream villages to significant pollutants in 2009 and 2011.

The Mountains and their abutting foothills and plains, considered as a north easterly trending structural uplift of Palaeozoic bedrock, constitute a geologic or physiographic province in the Maya Block of the North American Plate. The province is bounded by the seismically inactive Northern and Southern Boundary Faults.

The Mountains' orogen mainly consists of metamorphosed late Carboniferous to middle Permian volcanic sedimentary rocks overlying late Silurian granites.

The Mountains' basement is sub aerially exposed in four extremes of the mountain range. The exposed portions in the northwestern, northeastern, and southeastern points of the range are predominantly composed of intermediate to silicic Palaeozoic plutons, with exposed portions in the southern point of the range predominated by Palaeozoic volcanic rocks. The geologic evolution of the exposed portions of the Mountains' basement has been deemed 'one of the most disputed aspects of Central American geology,' though it has subsequently been suggested that these formed during the late Neogene to late Pliocene.

The Mountains' sedimentary cover blankets all of the province's foothills and plains, and all but a few portions of its mountain range. The cover in the foothills and plains is predominantly composed of Cretacaeous marine strata to the south, west, and north, but this transitions into Quaternary alluvium to the east. In contrast, the cover in the mountain range is predominated by Palaeozoic strata. The Mountains' cover in the mountain range has been recently characterised as an elevated relict landscape, i. e. an area where basement uplift has not been counterbalanced by fluvial erosion.

Geologic mapping and dating of rocks in the Maya Mountains have 'led to a variety of interpretations and eventually to puzzling discrepancies between reported field relations, age of fossils, and geochronologic data.' An early 1955 study divided the Mountains' sedimentary rocks into Macal and Maya series or formations, but these were subsequently rejected in favour of the single Santa Rosa Group of sedimentary rocks (discovered in Guatemala in 1966). However, this consensus was upended upon the 1996 discovery of deeper granitoids which crystallisation ages 'considerably older' than known post Devonian ages of Santa Rosa fossils. The presence of pre Devonian sediments was 'a matter of debate' until 'conclusively demonstrate[d]' in the affirmative in 2009. + Stratigraphic units of the Maya Mountains per 21st century literature. Name Rocks Epoch Age Unit Notes Maya Block crystalline basement – EdiacaranCambrian 560540 Ma cf Baldy Unit sandstone, quartz, phyllite CambrianSilurian 517406 Ma cf Mountain Pine Ridge Pluton granite OrdovicianSilurian 420405 Ma cf Bladen Formation rhyolite, dacite, tephra SilurianDevonian 413400 Ma cf Macal Formation sandstone, shale PennsylvanianPermian 330270 Ma cf HummingbirdMullins Pluton granite Triassic 250220 Ma cf CockscombSapote Pluton granite Triassic 240206 Ma cf Todos Santos – JurassicCretaceous 175125 Ma cf Coban Limestone limestone, dolomite CretaceousHolocene 1500 Ma cf

The Mountains are wedged between the easterly to northeasterly trending Corozal and Belize Basins, themselves sub basins of the PetenCorozal Basin, which fully encompasses the Mountains.

The Mountains are thought to have remained sparsely populated, and culturally and economically isolated, until 600830 CE, during the Late Classic, when the region experienced major demographic growth, possibly peaking in the 8th century. In c. 830 CE, during the Classic Maya Collapse, most of the Mountains' settlements experienced demographic decline, leading to sparse settlement during the Postclassic.

The mountains are mainly made of Paleozoic era granite and sediments. The Maya Mountains and associated foothills contain a number of important Mayan ruins including the sites of Lubaantun, Nim Li Punit, Cahal Pech and Chaa Creek.

The earliest public conservation like efforts in Belize are thought to have been geared towards regulating mahogany logging, via a 28 October 1817 proclamation vesting unclaimed lands in the Crown. The measure quickly proved futile however, as by 17 April 1835 Belize's Superintendent would note that 'no regulation or restriction has prevailed respecting the cutting of Wood or the occupation of Land and thus the mahogany on the extensive Tracts to the Southward of the Sibun and between the Rivers Belize & Hondo above Black Creek has been subjected to great waste and devastation.' The next step is thought to have been in 1894, with the passage of the first legislative protections for antiquities in colonial Belize, subsequently strengthened in 1897, 1924, and 1927. Archaeological conservation in Belize progressed quickly with the 1952 appointment of Alexander Hamilton Anderson as First Assistant Secretary to the Governor with responsibility for archaeological activities in the country, and the subsequent 1954 establishment of the Department of Archaeology, with Anderson as its inaugural commissioner or permanent secretary. Natural conservation likewise advanced with the 1887 Hooper and 1921 Hummel Reports, the 1922 establishment of a Department of Forestry, with Cornelius Hummel as inaugural conservator or permanent secretary, and the 1924, 1926, 1927, 1935, 1944, and 1945 passages of legislative protections for flora and fauna. Significantly, Silk Grass and Mountain Pine Ridge were gazetted as forest reserves in 1920, making these Belize's earliest non archaeological protected areas.

The earliest conservation efforts in Guatemala are thought to have been the 1921 and 1945 Leyes Forestales, leading to the 1955 establishment of the country's first protected areas, the Atitlán and Rio Dulce National Parks.

The earliest known exploratory expedition into the Mountains was led by captains Samuel Harrison and Valentín Delgado in The captains had been commissioned by the superintendent of colonial Belize, Edward Marcus Despard, and the visiting Spanish commissary, Enrique de Grimarest, to discover the source of the Sibun River, so as to ascertain the limits of the British settlement under the 1786 Convention of London. Subsequent pioneering explorations were led by Henry Fowler in 1879, C. H. Wilson in 1886, Karl Sapper in 18861935, J. Bellamy in 1888, L. H. Ower in 19221926, C. G. Dixon in 19501955, and J. H. Bateson and I. H. S. Hall in 19691970. Sapper's trips have been deemed 'the first geologic expeditions' into the Mountains, while Ower's survey produced what has been called 'the first geological map of the Colony [of British Honduras, including the Mountains].'