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| The Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde [Credit: Daily Times] |
"Collapse is not imminent," said Betty Lieurance, spokesperson for the park. "The cracks are just giving us clues about the deterioration."
Months of study suggest that the localized deterioration of individual structures is working collectively to create a much larger issue in which the entire southern area is sloping downward, and water seeping through cracks is catalyzing that slope.
Kiva F and the southern half of the Cliff Palace are the most prominent features that are threatened by the deterioration. Kiva F is a 13th century circular structure located in the southern portion of the alcove, and is one of the key components of the Cliff Palace tour.
Park employees are making every effort to preserve the Cliff Palace, which boasts about 160,000 visitors every year.
"Cliff Place is important to the history of the area, it's a sacred site for our tribes and it's important to the economy of the area as well." said Mesa Verde National Park Superintendent Cliff Spencer.
Explorers originally discovered the abandoned ruins around 1880, along with a slew of other dwellings nearby. The Cliff Palace is one of the most popular because of its 150 rooms and 23 kivas.
About 75 percent of the other dwellings in the park feature only one to five rooms.
Already, archaeologists put into place several braces to maintain the northern wall. Archaeologists continue to study and assess the area and currently are figuring out how to allow tourists to visit the Cliff Palace, but not damage it.
Author: Jenny Kane | Source: Daily Times [August 26, 2012]