Everything about the Chihuahuan Desert totally explained
The
Chihuahuan Desert is a
desert that straddles the
U.S.-Mexico border. On the
U.S. side it occupies the valleys and basins of central and southern
New Mexico,
Texas west of the
Pecos River and southeastern
Arizona; south of the border, it covers the northern half of the
Mexican state of
Chihuahua, most of
Coahuila, north-east portion of
Durango, extreme northern portion of
Zacatecas and small western portions of
Nuevo León. It has an area of about 140,000 square miles (~362,600 km²). It is the third largest desert entirely within the Western Hemisphere and second largest in North America, after the
Great Basin Desert.
Geography
The terrain mostly consists of
basins broken by numerous small
mountain ranges.
Several larger mountain ranges include the
Sierra Madre, the
Sierra del Carmen, the
Sacramento Mountains, the
Sandia-Manzano Mountains, the Magdalena-San Mateo Mountains, the
Chisos, the
Guadalupe Mountains, and the
Davis Mountains. These create "
sky islands" of cooler, wetter,
climates within the desert, and such elevated areas have both coniferous and broadleaf woodlands, and even forests along drainages and favored exposures.
The Chihuahuan Desert is higher in elevation than the
Sonoran Desert to the west, mostly varying from 600 m to 1,675 m (1,970-5,500 feet) in altitude. As a result, it tends to have a slightly milder climate in the summer (though usually daytime June temperatures are in the range of 35 to 40 °C, or 95 to 104 °F). Winter weather varies from relatively mild to quite cold depending on altitude and the ferocity of northerly winds.
Precipitation is somewhat more abundant than most of the southern
Great Basin, the Sonoran, and
Mojave deserts, however it's still usually less than 10 inches (254 mm) per year, with much of the rain falling during the "
monsoon" of late summer. Snowfall is scant except at the higher elevation edges.
The Chihuahuan Desert is an ecoregion that has received little exploration and study. Therefore, it hasn't been classified or had subdivisions applied to it, as has the Sonoran Desert to the west.
There are a few urban areas within the desert; the largest is
Ciudad Juárez with almost 2 million inhabitants, neighboring
El Paso,
Chihuahua and
Torreón are smaller, though growing in population. Las Cruces and Roswell, New Mexico are other significant cities in this ecoregion.
According to the
World Wide Fund for Nature, the Chihuahuan Desert may be the most biologically diverse desert in the world, whether measured on species richness or endemism, although the region has been heavily degraded over time. Many native species have been replaced with creosote shrubs. The Mexican wolf, once abundant, has been extirpated. The main cause of degradation has been grazing.
Vegetation
See:
Agave,
Creosote bush,
Lechuguilla,
Mesquite,
Prickly pear,
Sotol,
Yucca,
Grasses,
PeyoteFurther Information
Get more info on 'Chihuahuan Desert'.
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