Arizona 1 Arizona This article is about the U.S. state of Arizona. For other uses, see Arizona (disambiguation). State of Arizona Flag Seal Nickname(s): The Grand Canyon State; The Copper State Motto(s): Ditat Deus Official language English Demonym Arizonan Capital Phoenix (and largest city) Largest metro Phoenix Metropolitan Area Area Ranked 6th [1] - Total 113,990 sq mi (295,234 km2) - Width 310 miles (500 km) - Length 400 miles (645 km) - % water 0.35 - Latitude 31° 20′ N to 37° N - Longitude 109° 03′ W to 114° 49′ W Population Ranked 15th - Total 6,626,624 (2013 est) - Density 57/sq mi (22/km2) Ranked 33rd Elevation Arizona 2 [2] - Highest point Humphreys Peak 12,637 ft (3852 m) - Mean 4,100 ft (1250 m) - Lowest point Colorado River at the Sonora border 72 ft (22 m) Admission to Union February 14, 1912 (48th) Governor Jan Brewer (R) Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R) Legislature Arizona Legislature - Upper house Senate - Lower house House of Representatives U.S. Senators John McCain (R) Jeff Flake (R) U.S. House delegation 5 Democrats and 4 Republicans (list) Time zones - most of state Mountain: UTC -7 (no DST) - Navajo Nation Mountain: UTC -7/-6 Abbreviations AZ, Ariz. US-AZ [3] Website www.az.gov Arizona State symbols The Flag of Arizona Animal and Plant insignia Amphibian Arizona Tree Frog Bird(s) Cactus Wren Butterfly Two-tailed Swallowtail Fish Apache trout Flower(s) Saguaro Cactus blossom Mammal(s) Ring-tailed Cat Reptile Arizona Ridge-Nosed Rattlesnake Tree Palo verde Inanimate insignia Colors Blue, Old Gold Firearm Colt Single Action Army revolver Fossil Petrified wood Arizona 3 Gemstone Turquoise Mineral Fire agate Rock Petrified wood Ship(s) USS Arizona Slogan(s) The Grand Canyon State Soil Casa Grande Song(s) "Arizona March Song" "Arizona" (alternate) Route marker(s) State Quarter Released in 2008 Lists of United States state symbols Arizona ( i/ɛrɪˈzoʊnə/; /ærɪˈzoʊnə/) (Navajo: Hoozdo Hahoodzo; O'odham: Alĭ ṣonak) is a state in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the Western United States and of the Mountain West states. It is the sixth largest and the 15th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is one of the Four Corners states. It has borders with New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, and Mexico, and one point in common with the southwestern corner of Colorado. Arizona's border with Mexico is 389 miles (626 km) long, on the northern border of the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912. It was previously part of the territory of Alta California in New Spain before being passed down to independent Mexico and later ceded to the United States after the Mexican-American War. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase. Arizona is noted for its desert climate in its southern half, with very hot summers and mild winters. The northern half of the state features forests of pine, Douglas fir, and spruce trees; the Colorado Plateau; some mountain ranges (such as the San Francisco Mountains); as well as large, deep canyons, with much more moderate summer temperatures and significant winter snowfalls. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Alpine, and Tucson. In addition to the Grand Canyon National Park, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments. About one-quarter of the state[4] is made up of Indian Reservations that serve as the home of a number of Native American tribes. Arizona 4 Etymology The name of the state appears to originate from an earlier Spanish name, Arizonac, derived from the O'odham name alĭ ṣonak, meaning “small spring”, which initially applied only to an area near the Mexican silver mining camp of Planchas de Plata, Sonora.[5][6] This is supported by the fact that that area is still known as alĭ ṣonak in the O'odham language.[7] Another possible origin is the Basque phrase haritz ona (“the good oak”).[8] Geography and geology Main article: Geography of Arizona See also lists of counties, islands, rivers, lakes, state parks, national parks, and national forests. Arizona is located in the Southwestern United States as one of the Four Corners states. Arizona is the sixth largest state in area, after New Mexico and before Nevada. Of the state's 113,998 square miles (295,000 km2), approximately 15% is privately owned. The remaining area is public forest and park land, state trust land and Native The Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River. American reservations. Arizona is well known for its desert landscape, which is rich in xerophyte plants such as the cactus. It is also known for its climate, which presents exceptionally hot summers and mild winters. Less well known is the pine-covered high country of the Colorado Plateau in the north-central portion of the state, which contrasts with the desert Basin and Range region in the southern portions of the state (see Arizona Mountains forests). Like other states of the Southwest, Arizona has an abundance of mountains and plateaus in addition to its desert climate. Despite the West Mitten at Monument Valley state's aridity, 27% of Arizona is forest, a percentage comparable to modern-day France or Germany. The largest stand of Ponderosa pine trees in the world is contained in Arizona. The Mogollon Rim, a 1,998-foot (609 m) escarpment, cuts across the central section of the state and marks the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau, where the state experienced its second worst forest fire ever in 2002. Arizona belongs firmly within the Basin and Range region of North America. The region was shaped by prehistoric volcanism, followed by Blue Mesa at Petrified Forest National Park the cooling-off and related subsidence. The Grand Canyon is a colorful, steep-sided gorge, carved by the Colorado River, in northern Arizona. The canyon is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and is largely contained in the Grand Canyon National Park—one of the first national parks in the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of designating the Grand Canyon area, visiting on numerous occasions to hunt mountain lion and enjoy the scenery. The canyon was created by Arizona 5 the Colorado River cutting a channel over millions of years, and is about 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles (6 to 29 km) and attains a depth of more than 1 mile (1.6 km). Nearly two billion years of the Earth's history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut through layer after layer of sediment as the Colorado Plateaus have uplifted. Arizona is home to one of the most well-preserved meteorite impact sites in the world. The Barringer Meteorite Crater (better known The Grand Canyon. simply as “Meteor Crater”) is a gigantic hole in the middle of the high plains of the Colorado Plateau, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Winslow. A rim of smashed and jumbled boulders, some of them the size of small houses, rises 150 feet (46 m) above the level of the surrounding plain. The crater itself is nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) wide, and 570 feet (170 m) deep. Arizona is one of two states that does not observe Daylight Saving Time (the other being Hawaii), except in the Navajo Nation, located in the northeastern region of the state. San Francisco Peaks seen from Bellemont, Earthquakes Arizona Generally, Arizona is at low risk of earthquakes, except for the southwestern portion which is at moderate risk due to its proximity to Southern California. On the other hand, Northern Arizona is at moderate risk due to numerous faults in the area. The regions that are at lowest risk in the state are near and west of Phoenix. The earliest Arizona earthquakes were recorded at Fort Yuma, on the California side of the Colorado River. They were centered near the Imperial Valley, or Mexico, back in the 1800s. The first damaging earthquake known to be centered within Arizona's borders occurred on January 25, 1906, also including a series of other earthquakes centered Sonoran Desert at Saguaro National Park near Socorro, New Mexico. The shock was violent in Flagstaff. In 1887, Douglas felt the shock of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake with an epicenter 40 miles to the south in the Mexican state of Sonora. In September of 1910, a series of fifty-two earthquakes caused a construction crew near Flagstaff to leave the area. In 1912, the year Arizona achieved statehood, on August 18, an earthquake caused a 50-mile crack in the San Francisco Range. In early January 1935, the state experienced a series of earthquakes, in the Yuma area and near the Grand Canyon. Arizona experienced its largest earthquake in 1959, Cathedral Rock near Red Rock Crossing in with a tremor of a magnitude 5.6. It was centered near Fredonia, in the Sedona northwestern part of the state near the border with Utah. The tremor was felt across the border in the neighboring states of Nevada and Utah. Climate Arizona 6 Due to its large area and variations in elevation, the state has a wide variety of localized climate conditions. In the lower elevations, the climate is primarily desert, with mild winters and extremely hot summers. Typically, from late fall to early spring, the weather is mild, averaging a minimum of 60°F (16°C).