Abbreviated as CO on abbreviationfinder.org, Colorado is a state of the United States. Explore by the Spaniards in the second half of the century. 18th, was occupied in the next by Mexico. Sold to the United States in 1848 (Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo), gold mines were discovered there in 1858, attracting numerous emigrants. Established in the territory in 1861, it became a State of the Union only in 1876.
One of the great natural regions of the United States. From the morphological point of view, its limits do not coincide neither with the administrative ones of Colorado (state) nor with those of the homonymous river basin; rather, roughly, with the portion of this upstream of the famous cañón. The plateau (altogether about 550,000 sq km) falls almost equally in the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. To N. and to E. it is bordered by the Rocks, to the West by the Great Basin, to the South by the high lands of Arizona and by the Trans Pecos region, whose characters can be distinguished quite clearly everywhere, apart from small strips to N. and to SE., where the transition from one to another district is morphologically gradual.
The territory essentially results from a powerful pile of sediments, which, deposited in shallow waters from the earliest periods of its geological history up to the lower Cenozoic, came, starting with the Eocene – when the territory itself was already all or almost all emerged – subjected to a series of movements, which modified the original surface, without corrugating the layers, as happened instead of the nearby Rocciose. These movements, which led to a progressive uplift of the region, took place on several occasions, interspersed with periods of quiescence and accompanied by flexions, fractures and volcanic paroxysms. The simplicity of that surface was so locally altered that a series of engravings fragmented into clods ( mesas), and these arranged like steps, especially where large eruptive expansions accumulated above the flat rocky base.
The latter acquire greater importance and breadth along the southern edge of the plateau, where the highest elevations are reached (Agassiz Peak, m. 3844; MS Francisco, on the right of Little Colorado; Thomas Peak, m. 3504; M. Taylor, m . 3471; Green Peak, m. 3083); elsewhere the uniformity of the level is almost absolute: for very large extensions the eye struggles to distinguish the emergence of some rocky fragment or the sudden opening of the fissures along which the rivers run. Common with the Great Basin is only the dryness of the climate, with the resulting consequences in the vegetation and human settlements; instead, the contrast between the perfectly horizontal or slightly inclined lines of the stratifications and the vertical ones, plumb, of the tectonic and erosive notches.
The height of the plateau, inclined as a whole towards SW, oscillates between 1500 and 2000 m., But, as well as in its southern portion, along the area of contact with the Rocks (Grand Mesa, m. 3339; Battlement Mesa , m. 3321; Mesa Verde, m. 3013) and with the Great Basin (Wasatch Plateau, m. 3749), there are locally much higher elevations, as for example. where the granite nucleus of the Henry Mountains shines through the sedimentary masses (M. Ellen, m. 3474; M. Pennel, m. 3444).
The climate of the plateau is the drier the further you proceed towards the West (below 400 mm of annual rainfall on average); the rains move from late winter to early summer from NW. towards SE. From Colorado to SO. and from New Mexico of NO. in this way we pass, by degrees, through Utah and Arizona, to the steppe of the Great Basin. Overall, the region is covered in the highest parts by a sparse coniferous forest, which gives way below, and then decidedly towards the SW., To the thorny associations of the chaparral , which dominate in the neighboring territory of Arizona.
In contrast to the relative uniformity of the surfaces, there is the dense network of deep valley incisions ( cañones ) that the rivers descending to the Colorado have opened in the plateau; therefore communications from area to area are very difficult, and this too contributes to making the plateau one of the least densely populated regions on the continent. No notable center arises there, and the railways barely touch it on the edges: only a short trunk penetrates it to lead tourists to the edge of the Grand Canyon.
Boulder
According to countryaah.com, Boulder is a city of the State of Colorado (United States), and capital of the county of the same name. It is located on the eastern slopes of the Front Colorado Range, deeply engraved by the tributaries of the South Platte River; it is only 46 km away. from Denver, Colorado’s premier railroad hub. It counted in 1900, 6,150 inhabitants; in 1910, 9530; in 1920, 11.006. It is a predominantly industrial city (woodworking, brick factories, etc.). In its surroundings are important oil fields and notable gold and silver mines. Various railway trunks link it to Denver and other smaller towns.
The city is an important seat of studies: since 1877 it has been home to the Colorado University, which in recent years had over 200 professors and nearly 3000 students. Like all other American cities, it has magnificent parks, including the largest (the public park) covering over 900 hectares.
Denver
City of the USA (588,349 residents In 2007), capital of the State of Colorado. It is located at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains, at 1609 m asl, in the place of previously discovered gold deposits. It is the most outstanding commercial and financial center among the river Missouri and the coastal region of the Pacific. A thriving market for agricultural and livestock products, it has a strong secondary activity: sugar refineries, mechanical, electrical, petrochemical, rubber processing, publishing industries. The coal, gold and silver production of the state is also concentrated there. Due to the favorable climatic conditions it is a popular summer tourism and winter sports center.
Founded in 1858 (named after the governor of Kansas, General JW Denver), became the territory’s capital in 1867.
