How many deserts in north america

Death Valley is one of the hottest places on earth. This desert stretches eastwards across California into southern Arizona and southwards into Mexico. It covers about , square mi , km2 and lies mostly below 2, ft m in altitude. Like the Mojave Desert, the Sonoran Desert is a product of the range and basin disturbance that affected the south-western regions of North America some 30 million years ago.

It is home to the Salton Sea, a large, saline lake that lies in one such desert basin. The Sonoran Desert is also home to the only active dune field, or erg, in North America. Lying to the east of the Sonoran Desert, the Chihuahuan Desert is almost the size of the Great Basin Desert, and is the most easterly and southerly of the North American deserts. Due to its slightly higher overall elevation than the Sonoran Desert, the Chihuahuan Desert has a milder climate, although is still very arid.

All the North American deserts experience extreme variations in temperature, which is a typical feature of deserts worldwide. Going from north to south, the four North American deserts show a trend of increasing average annual temperature.

The Great Basin Desert is a cold desert; it is furthest from the equator and has the highest average altitude. Its winters are characterised by snow and ice, and its summers are very short. Moving southwards, the deserts get closer to the equator and have lower average altitudes. In all four North American deserts, there is a large difference between winter and summer temperatures.

Winters bring snow to the high peaks, whereas summers are scorching hot. In addition, on any one day, there is a large variation in temperature between the cold mountain peaks and the warm valleys. The extreme temperature gradients give rise to strong winds, which make these deserts even more inhospitable. Deserts by definition receive very little precipitation.

In the case of the North American deserts this is due to the mountain ranges that prevent moist air from rolling in.

The mean annual rainfall on the four deserts is lowest in the north 6 — 12 in, or — mm, in the Great Basin Desert , and highest in the south 12 — 20 in, or — mm, in parts of the Sonoran Desert. In the Great Basin Desert, most of the precipitation occurs as snowfall, and the tops of the mountains may actually be quite moist at times.

Melt water draining from the mountains collects in the basins, forming shallow, temporary lakes. With nowhere to drain into, the water in these lakes eventually evaporates, leaving saline salty soil behind. Salt lakes are typical in the basins of all four major North American deserts, the most famous being the Great Salt Lake in the state of Utah.

It is not only the quantity of rain that is important in a desert, but also its timing. In the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts, rain falls mostly in the winter months, and the plants have their growing season in spring. The Chihuahuan Desert is in a summer rainfall area, and the Sonoran Desert has the benefit of rain in winter and in summer.

Trees are rare. Rainfall is predominantly in the summer, but in the northern end there is occasionally enough winter rain to support massive blooms of spring annuals. The Chihuahuan Desert is unexpectedly rich in species despite the winter cold.

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We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here. Visit Teachers - Bring Your Class! Become a Member! Grand Canyon from North Rim. An additional source of confusion is provided by the great number of desert names i.

Yuman Desert, Colorado Desert, etc. These names usually refer to local subdivisions within one of the four major deserts. These "deserts" are identified and defined below. Borrego Desert: The term Borrego Desert is an informal term, rather than an official one.

Officially there is no Borrego Desert. Painted Desert: This term is used differently by different writers:. A narrow desert strip running west of the Grand Canyon, north-to-south along U. OR The entire region from the northern boundary of the Sonoran Desert of Arizona to southwestern Colorado and southern Utah, encompassing the Colorado River, the Colorado Plateau and its numerous parks and monuments.

The southern end is in the Gulf of California. The Sahara Desert: Geology and Climate - One of the most storied and unforgiving lands in the world, the Sahara -- the Arabic word for "desert" -- evokes a poignant sense of time and nature's power, of antiquity and legend, of wonder and mystery.

The Gobi Desert: Location and Landscape - The Gobi, the fifth largest desert in the world, arcs across the borderlands of northern China and southern Mongolia.