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The Basin and Range Province is a vast physiographic region covering much of the inland Western United States and northwestern Mexico. It is defined by unique basin and range topography , characterized by abrupt changes in elevation, alternating between narrow faulted mountain chains and flat arid valleys or basins.
The Great Basin includes valleys, basins, lakes and mountain ranges of the Basin and Range Province. [ 20 ] The basin and range topography is the result of extension and thinning of the lithosphere , which is composed of crust and upper mantle .
Basin and range topography has alternating parallel mountain ranges and valleys Basin and range topography is characterized by alternating parallel mountain ranges and valleys. It is a result of crustal extension due to mantle upwelling , gravitational collapse, crustal thickening, or relaxation of confining stresses.
The Intermountain West has a basin and range and plateau topography. Some of the region's rivers reach the Pacific Ocean, such as the Columbia River and Colorado River.Other regional rivers and streams are in endorheic basins and cannot reach the sea, such as the Walker River and Owens River.
The extent of internal drainage, the area in which surface water cannot reach the ocean, defines the geographic region called the Great Basin. [7] The Great Basin's internal drainage results from blockage of water movement by high fault-created mountains and by lack of sufficient water flow to merge with larger drainages outside of the Great Basin.
The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range.The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, and the Central Basin and Range ecoregion defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and United States Geological Survey.
Great Basin landforms — including mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, watersheds, and structural basins in this region of the Western United States The main section for this category is in the article Great Basin , in the section titled Geography .
The region consists mostly of plateaus and mountain ranges lying between the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains on the west. It is subdivided into three physiographic provinces : the Columbia Plateau in the north, the Basin and Range Province in the central and southwestern portions, and the Colorado Plateau ...