44th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2000

REQUESTING THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE TO COMMEMORATE THE CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK WITH A POSTAGE STAMP.

WHEREAS, Carlsbad Caverns national park was first designated a national monument in 1923, redesignated a national park in 1930 and designated a world heritage site in 1995; and

WHEREAS, the park was established to preserve Carlsbad Caverns and numerous other caves within a permian-age fossil reef and contains eighty-three separate caves, including the nation's third longest cave and deepest limestone cave, one thousand five hundred ninety-seven feet deep; and

WHEREAS, the caverns are the result of the creation of a four-hundred-mile-long reef in an inland sea that covered the region more than two hundred fifty million years ago; and

WHEREAS, cracks developed in the reef as it grew seaward, and with eventual evaporation of the sea, the reef was buried under deposits of salts and gypsum; and

WHEREAS, a few million years ago, uplift and erosion of the area uncovered the buried rock reef, rainwater seeped down into the cracks in the reef, and by slowly dissolving the limestone, began the process that over time formed large underground chambers; and

WHEREAS, simultaneously, hydrogen sulfide gas migrated upward from vast oil and gas deposits beneath the ancient reef, forming sulfuric acid, which corroded the formation and created huge passageways; and

WHEREAS, the exposed reef became part of the Guadalupe mountains, and the underground chambers became the wonder of Carlsbad Caverns, a unique monument to nature's magical and enchanting power;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the United States postal service be requested to commemorate the Carlsbad Caverns national park with a postage stamp; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the postmaster general.