List of North American deserts
This list of North American Sierra Nevada, Transverse, and Peninsular Ranges on the west. The North American xeric region of over 95,751 sq mi (247,990 km2) includes three major deserts, numerous smaller deserts, and large non-desert arid regions in the Western United States and in northeastern, central, and northwestern Mexico.
Overview
The following are three major hot and dry deserts in North America, all located in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.[2]
- The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest hot desert in North America, located in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. Its total area is 140,000 sq mi (360,000 km2).
- 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 km2).
- The Mojave Desert is the hottest desert in North America, located primarily in southeastern California and Southern Nevada. Its total area is 22,000 sq mi (57,000 km2).
The largest cold desert is the Great Basin Desert, which encompasses much of the northern Basin and Range Province, north of the Mojave Desert.
Other cold deserts lie within the
Columbia Basin, the Snake River Plain, and the Colorado Plateau
regions.
Full listing
Baja Californian DesertChihuahuan Desert
(listed from north to south)
- Great Kobuk Sand Dunes three small deserts in northwestern Alaska, part of the Kobuk Valley National Park
- Yukon - Carcross Desert, smallest desert in the world
- Washington – British Columbia – Idaho – Wyoming – Oregon – Nevada
- Much of the Columbia Basin is desert, such as the
- Columbia Basin of eastern Washington
- Most of the Snake River Plain (ecoregion) is sagebrush steppe, but barren lava fields form small deserts, such as
- Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho
- The Wyoming Basin (ecoregion) is dominated by arid shrub steppe, but also contains the
- Owyhee Desert, in southwestern Idaho, northern Nevada, and southeastern Oregon.
- Y P Desert, a portion of the Owyhee Desert in Idaho
- Oregon High Desert, aka "Great Sandy Desert", eastern Oregon
- Alvord Desert, a dry lake bed.
- Northern Basin and Range (ecoregion)
- Black Rock Desert, a dry lake bed.
- Much of the Columbia Basin is desert, such as the
- Great Basin Desert
- Nevada, dominated by sagebrush steppe
- Forty Mile Desert, in northwest Nevada
- Smoke Creek Desert, Nevada (980 sq mi)
- Carson Desert
- Utah
- Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah
- Sevier Desert surrounds the intermittent, salty Sevier Lake
- Escalante Desert (3,270 sq mi)
- Nevada, dominated by sagebrush steppe
- Colorado Plateau
- Utah
- San Rafael Desert, the drier portions of the San Rafael Swell
- Colorado, dominated by pinyon–juniper woodlands, but contains desert areas where unfavorable soil conditions exist:
- Bisti Badlands Desert, New Mexico
- Painted Desert, Arizona
- Utah
- Mojave Desert
- California (the High Desert); and parts of western Arizona, southern Nevada, and a small portion of Utah.
- Death Valley, California
- Amargosa Desert, Nevada
- California (the High Desert); and parts of western Arizona, southern Nevada, and a small portion of Utah.
- Sonoran Desert
- Colorado Desert, Southern California (the Low Desert)
- Imperial Valley, California
- Yuma Desert, southwest Arizona
- Lechuguilla Desert, southwest Arizona
- Tule Desert (Arizona) and Sonora, Mexico
- Gran Desierto de Altar, Sonora, Mexico
- Baja California desert, State of Baja California, Mexico
- Vizcaíno Desert, central State of Baja California, Mexico
- Colorado Desert, Southern California (the Low Desert)
- Chihuahuan Desert
- Trans-Pecos Desert, west Texas
- White Sands, unusual gypsum dune field in New Mexico
Western arid regions of North America
The separately defined western arid regions of North America are continental regions of aridity based on available water in addition to
sky islands) discontiguous from the Mojave Desert,[4] unlike the southwestern Great Basin deserts adjacent with ecotones
to the northern Mojave Desert.
See also
- Desert ecology
- Desert of Maine
- Deserts and xeric shrublands – biome and ecoregions
- Deserts of California
- Great American Desert
- List of deserts
- List of deserts by area
- North American Deserts in List of ecoregions in North America (CEC)
- North American Deserts in List of ecoregions in the United States (EPA)
- Semi-arid climate
References
- ^ EPA, OA, OEAEE, OWC, US. "About the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) – US EPA". US EPA. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Desert Biome". University of California Museum of Paleontology.
- ^ (1953 Meigs criteria)
- ^ "The World's Largest Desert". Geology and Earth Science. geology.com. Retrieved 2010-04-25.