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The desert region of California is characterized by low rainfall, caused by the rain shadow of mountain ranges to the west of the desert region. The Mojave Desert receives from 3 to 10 inches (76 to 254 mm) of rain per year, while the Colorado Desert receives from 2 to 6 inches (51 to 152 mm). [ 10] The driest spot in California is Death Valley ...
The low desert of southeastern California is part of the Sonoran desert ecoregion, which extends into Arizona and parts of northern Mexico. [ 2] California has two high deserts: the Mojave desert and the Great Basin Desert. The Mojave desert ecoregion is marked by the presence of Joshua trees. [ 3] The dry cold Great Basin desert of California ...
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. It is a temperate desert with hot, dry summers and snowy winters. [ 4]
Caliche fossil forest on San Miguel Island, California. Caliche (/ k ə ˈ l iː tʃ iː /) - (unrelated to the street-slang "Caliche" spoken in El Salvador) - is a sedimentary rock, a hardened natural cement of calcium carbonate that binds other materials—such as gravel, sand, clay, and silt.
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 ...
San Joaquin (soil) San Joaquin is an officially designated state insignia, the state soil of the U.S. state of California . The California Central Valley has more than 500,000 acres (2,000 km 2) of San Joaquin soils, named for the south end of that valley. This series is the oldest continuously recognized soil series within the state.
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]
Chaparral in the Santa Ynez Mountains, near Santa Barbara, California. Chaparral ( / ˌʃæpəˈræl, ˌtʃæp -/ SHAP-ə-RAL, CHAP-) [ 1] is a shrubland plant community found primarily in California, in southern Oregon and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet ...