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The Sonoran Desert is a desert located in the Southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. It is the second largest hot desert in North America. Its total area is 120,000 sq mi (310,000 km 2). The Mojave Desert is the hottest desert in North America, located primarily in southeastern California and Southern Nevada.
Instead, precipitation drains to ephemeral or saline lakes via streams, or disappears via evaporation or absorption into the soil. [6] [7] The desert is the coldest of the deserts in North America. [6] Orographic uplift resulting in a rain shadow as air descends and compresses, resulting in arid warming on the leeward side of a mountain.
The Mojave Desert is often colloquially called the "high desert", as most of it lies between 2,000 and 4,000 feet (610 and 1,220 m). It supports a diversity of flora and fauna. The 54,000 sq mi (140,000 km 2) desert supports a number of human activities, including recreation, ranching, and military training. [ 9]
Its largest, continual expanse is located in Mexico, covering a large portion of the state of Chihuahua, along with portions of Coahuila, north-eastern Durango, the extreme northern part of Zacatecas, and small western portions of Nuevo León. With an area of about 501,896 km 2 (193,783 sq mi), [1] it is the largest hot desert in North America. [2]
Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the hottest place on Earth during summer. [3] Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the point of lowest elevation in North America, at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. [1]
Aridisols (or desert soils) are a soil order in USDA soil taxonomy. [1] Aridisols (from the Latin aridus, for "dry", and solum) form in an arid or semi-arid climate. Aridisols dominate the deserts and xeric shrublands, which occupy about one third of the Earth's land surface. Aridisols have a very low concentration of organic matter, reflecting ...
The warm deserts of North America include The Mojave Basin and Range, the Sonoran desert, and the Chihuahuan desert. These areas have a tropical desert climate, and are known as the hottest and driest place on the continent. This is due to the continental interior location on the leeward side of mountains, with constant subtropical high pressures.
Exploration of North America. The exploration of North America by European sailors and geographers was an effort by major European powers to map and explore the continent with the goal of economic, religious and military expansion. The combative and rapid nature of this exploration is the result of a series of countering actions by neighboring ...