List of North American deserts: Difference between revisions
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**[[Baja California desert|Baja California Desert]], State of [[Baja California]], Mexico |
**[[Baja California desert|Baja California Desert]], State of [[Baja California]], Mexico |
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**[[Vizcaíno Desert]], central State of Baja California, Mexico |
**[[Vizcaíno Desert]], central State of Baja California, Mexico |
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Drumheller desert Drumheller Alberta |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
Revision as of 15:41, 27 September 2010
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Th List of North American deserts identifies areas of the continent which receive less than 10 in (250 mm) annual precipitation. There are four major deserts[2][dead link] in North America, all located in the western United States and northern Mexico. These are:
- The Great Basin Desert – the largest desert in North America, located primarily in Nevada
- The Mojave Desert – the hottest desert in North America, located primarily in southeastern California
- The Chihuahuan Desert – the second largest desert in North America, located in the southwest US and northern Mexico
- The Sonoran Desert – a desert located in the southwest US and northwest Mexico
Additionally, there are smaller deserts within the Columbia Plateau/Columbia Basin, the Snake River Plain, and the Colorado Plateau regions.
Canada is home to a few small "deserts" such as the Nk'mip Desert, which is actually shrub steppe. Another "desert" near Carcross, Yukon is commonly called a desert, but it is not a true desert, rather an area of northern sand dunes.[3]
Full listing
(Listed from north to south)
- Western Canada
- Carcross Desert, small "desert" in the Yukon, only 2.6 kilometers across. It has cold winters and very hot summers. Too humid to be a true desert.
- Fraser Canyon - the landscape of the Fraser Canyon is severely arid from just south of Lytton upstream as far as the city of Williams Lake.
- Thompson Country - the southern Thompson Country, comprising the immediate banks of the Thompson River between the city of Kamloops and the village of Lytton, has a range of desert-like terrain and climates.
- Carberry sandhills, or Spirit Sands, in Spruce Woods Provincial Park, Manitoba. Not a true desert, but the sandy remnant of a glacial river delta.
- Nk'mip Desert, small arid area in British Columbia, Canada. Claimed to be Canada's only "true" hot desert, but actually shrub steppe and, like other "deserts" in BC, is a northward extension of the Columbia Plateau (ecoregion).
- Washington - Idaho - Wyoming - Oregon
- Much of the Columbia Plateau (ecoregion) is desert, such as the
- Channeled Scablands, a desert in 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
- The Wyoming Basin (ecoregion) is dominated by arid grasslands and shrub steppe, but also contains the
- Owyhee Desert, in southwestern Idaho, northern Nevada, and southeastern Oregon.
- Yp Desert, a portion of the Owyhee Desert in Idaho
- Alvord Desert, a dry lake in eastern Oregon
- Oregon High Desert, aka "Great Sandy Desert", eastern Oregon
- Much of the Columbia Plateau (ecoregion) is desert, such as the
- Nevada
- Black Rock Desert, a dry lake bed in northwestern Nevada
- Forty Mile Desert, Nevada
- Great Basin Desert dominated by sagebrush steppe
- Smoke Creek Desert, Nevada (980 sq mi)[1]
- Amargosa Desert, in lower southwestern Nevada
- Utah
- Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah
- J-P Desert
- Ralston Desert
- San Emidio Desert([2] (305)
- Sevier Desert, Utah
- Ten Mile Desert
- The Colorado Plateau is dominated by pinyon-juniper woodlands, but contains desert areas:
- Escalante Desert, Utah (3,270 sq mi)
- Bisti Badlands Desert, New Mexico
- Painted Desert, Arizona
- Mojave Desert - California (the High Desert); and parts of western Arizona and southern Nevada.
- Death Valley, California
- Sonoran Desert
- Colorado Desert, Southern California (the Low Desert)
- Yuha Desert, Imperial Valley, California
- Yuma Desert, southwest Arizona
- Lechuguilla Desert, southwest Arizona
- Tule Desert (Arizona) and Sonora, Mexico
- Gran Desierto de Altar, Sonora, Mexico
- Colorado Desert, Southern California (the Low Desert)
- Chihuahuan Desert
- Trans-Pecos Desert, west Texas
- White Sands, unusual gypsum dune field in New Mexico
- Baja California peninsula
- Baja California Desert, State of Baja California, Mexico
- Vizcaíno Desert, central State of Baja California, Mexico
Drumheller desert Drumheller Alberta
See also
- North American Deserts in List of ecoregions in the United States (EPA)
- North American Deserts in List of ecoregions in North America (CEC)
- Deserts and xeric shrublands
- List of deserts
- Desert Region of California
- Great American Desert
- Desert of Maine