Wupatki - the upper ruins at Wupatki Pueblo

This view is looking back uphill from the lower ruins to the upper ruins at Wupatki Pueblo. The hill in the distance is the remnant of lava flows and volcanic deposits that covered this section of the plateau in the latest Tertiary. Archeological evidence suggests that the Ancestral Puebloan population grew in the area about the time of the eruption of the nearby volcanoes located in nearby Sunset Crater National Monument.The Wupatki area was dusted by air fall from the Sunset Crater eruptions. It has been argued that the layer of cinders from the Sunset Craters eruption may have improved agricultural yields in the region because areas covered with fine, loose cinders retained precipitation water better than barren soil (Hanson, 2008; Hooten and others, 2007; Ort and others, 2008, 2008b).