what percentage of north america is desert

What is the largest desert area in the US?

• The Antarctic is classified as a polar desert. Measuring 5.5 million square miles, it is the largest desert in the world.
• The Sahara is the largest subtropical desert in the world, clocking in at 3.5 million square miles.
• At 0.19 million square miles (0.49 million sq. km), the Great Basin is one of the “big four” deserts in North America.

What desert is the size of the US?

The world’s largest hot desert, the Sahara, is a subtropical desert in northern Africa. The Sahara Desert is almost the size of the entire continental United States. Other subtropical deserts include the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa and the Tanami Desert in northern Australia. Coastal Deserts

How much of the Earth is covered with desert?

Seen from space, the majority of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans – that makes up 71% of the surface of the Earth, with the remaining 29% for land. But what percentage of the Earth’s land surface is desert? Deserts actually make up 33%, or 1/3rd of the land’s surface area.

What is a famous desert in the US?

Deserts offer their own form of beauty as well, with stunning cliffs carved out by the wind and sand, breathtaking mountain ranges, and beautifully-unique plant life. Throughout the United States, there are four major desert ranges - the Mojave Desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, the Sonoran Desert, and the Great Basin Desert.

What is the percentage of desert in America?

More than 30 percent of North America is comprised of arid or semi-arid lands, with about 40 percent of the continental United States at risk for desertification [source: U.N.].

Is the desert in North America?

North America has four major deserts: Great Basin, Mohave, Chihuahuan and Sonoran. All but the Sonoran Desert have cold winters. Freezing temperatures are even more limiting to plant life than is aridity, so colder deserts are poorer in both species and life forms, especially succulents.

How big is the North American desert?

Estimates of the size of the region vary, depending upon definition and year, from about 500,000 to more than 730,000 square miles (1,300,000 to 1,900,000 square kilometres).

Which part of the US has the most desert?

The Great Basin Desert is the largest desert area of North America. It is also the most northerly, covering most of Nevada (Ne), the western third of Utah (U) and parts of Idaho (Id) and Oregon (Or).

What's the largest desert in North America?

The roughly 200,000-square-mile Chihuahuan Desert — larger than the state of California — stretches across six Mexican states and parts of Texas and New Mexico. It is the largest desert in North America and is located between two of Mexico's largest mountain ranges called the eastern and western Sierra Madre.

Where is world's largest desert?

AntarcticaAs already mentioned, Antarctic Desert is the largest desert in the world, it is located in the southern hemisphere in the continent of Antarctica. It expands across 14,000,000 kilometres(5,500,000 square miles).

Is Texas a desert?

Although Texas is popularly associated with the U.S. southwestern deserts, less than ten percent of Texas's land area is desert. Most of the population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests, and the coastline.

Is Death Valley a desert?

Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert.

What is the driest desert in North America?

the Mohave DesertWith a breadth of almost 50,000 square miles, the Mohave Desert is the smallest and driest desert in North America. Predominantly located in southern Nevada and southeastern California, the famous desert landscape is home to almost 2,000 unique plants plus the famous Joshua trees native only to the Mohave Desert.

What is the world's oldest desert?

the NamibStanding atop one of the tallest dunes on Earth, it felt as though the sand beneath our feet stretched into infinity. With its red dunes rolling endlessly into the ocean, the Namib is the oldest desert in the world — a sea of silica stretching along Namibia's entire Atlantic coast.

Which is the hottest desert in North America?

The Mojave Desert is the hottest desert in North America, located primarily in southeastern California and Southern Nevada.

What's the hottest desert in the world?

Death Valley holds the record for the highest air temperature on the planet: On 10 July 1913, temperatures at the aptly named Furnace Creek area in the California desert reached a blistering 56.7°C (134.1°F). Average summer temperatures, meanwhile, often rise above 45°C (113°F).

Does South America desert?

The Atacama Desert forms part of the arid Pacific fringe of South America. Dry subsidence created by the South Pacific high-pressure cell makes the desert one of the driest regions in the world.

Where are deserts located?

Although most deserts, such as the Sahara of North Africa and the deserts of the southwestern U.S., Mexico, and Australia, occur at low latitudes, another kind of desert, cold deserts, occur in the basin and range area of Utah and Nevada and in parts of western Asia.

Which North American region contains deserts?

The three major desert regions of North America—the Sonoran, Mojave, and Chihuahuan—are all in the American southwest and northern Mexico. These large deserts are located in the rain shadows of nearby mountains. The mountains block precipitation and accelerate the movement of hot, dry wind over these regions.

Is there a desert in United States?

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.

What are the major deserts in the United States?

The continent’s major deserts are associated with the intermontane Basin and Range Province of the western United States, northern Mexico, and the Colorado Plateau region of northern Arizona, southwestern Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah.

How old is the North American desert?

Most of the North American Desert—and all the salty-lake remnants—occupies areas covered by geologically recent Quaternary deposits (i.e., those less than 2.6 million years old) and mountains thrust up and folded by movements in the Paleogene and Neogene periods (about 65 to 2.6 million years ago), with some plains and plateaus consisting of sediments up to 225 million years old.

How much rain does the desert get?

Average annual rainfall varies from 6 to 12 inches (150 to 300 millimetres) in the Great Basin Desert, 2 to 6 inches in the Mojave Desert (a low of 2 inches in Death Valley), 10 to 11 inches in the Red and Painted deserts, 8 to 18 inches in the Sonoran Desert, and 12 to 14 inches in parts of the Chihuahuan Desert.

How much snowfall does the Sonoran Desert get?

Precipitation may be seasonal and characteristically is erratic, scattered, or intense. Snowfall of 12 to 24 inches occurs in most of the northern deserts, decreasing to only a trace in the Sonoran Desert. Winds are directional, with speeds averaging seven to nine miles per hour.

How humid is Death Valley?

Average relative humidities are generally less than 50 percent (20 percent for Death Valley), but 10 percent or less is not uncommon. The growing season varies from 90 to 140 days in the northern deserts to more than 300 days along the Sonoran gulf coast and in the Baja Peninsula.

What is the lowest point in the world?

In California near the undefined Great Basin–Mojave border are the sun-scorched landscapes of Death Valley; the valley’s maximum depth of 282 feet (86 metres) below sea level is the continent’s lowest point.

What is the cold desert?

Subscribe Now. Classified as a cold mid-latitude desert is the Great Basin Desert, which lies in the physiographic Great Basin that covers nearly all of Nevada, western Utah, and portions of surrounding states.

What are the deserts in North America?

Which Deserts Are In North America? The Joshua tree is one of the unique species of the Mojave Desert. North America is the world’s third largest continent occupying an area of about 9,400,000 square miles. The continent has many deserts which receive less than 10 inches of rainfall annually. These deserts are largely situated between ...

Where is the desert in California?

It is an arid-shadow desert that is primarily situated in southern Nevada and southeastern California. A smaller part of the desert extends into Arizona and Utah. The desert has about 2,000 plant species including the Joshua trees.

What is the Chihuahuan Desert?

Chihuahuan Desert is an ecoregion and desert designation occupying parts of southwestern US and northern Mexico. It covers a considerable part of western Texas, lower Peco Valley, and the Rio Grande, and a small portion of Mexican Plateau and Arizona. It occupies a huge part of Chihuahua state and portions of Nuevo Leon, Zacatecas, Durango, and Coahuila in Mexico. It is the second biggest North American desert and third in the western hemisphere which occupies an area of about 139,769 square miles. The Chihuahuan Desert is a rain-shadow desert with two mountain ranges covering it, the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre, Occidental which block the moisture from the Mexican Gulf and the Pacific Ocean. The desert has only one rainy season during summer from June to October. The average temperature in the Chihuahuan Desert is about 75°F with the valley and lower elevation regions having extremely high temperatures.

What is the Great Basin Desert?

The Great Basin Desert is a temperate desert with snowy winters and dry, hot summers. It is situated in the Great Basin right between the Wasatch Range and the Sierra Nevada. It is one of the big biologically defined deserts in the continent that spans a considerable part of Nevada and then stretch into Idaho, eastern California, and western Utah. The desert has broad valleys which are surrounded by numerous parallel mountainous ranges. The desert has over 33 peaks whose summits are over 9,800 feet high, but its valleys have an elevation of over 3,900 feet. The biological community of the region varies with altitude from the Pinyon-juniper forests through the rolling sagebrush valleys to the lower salty dry lakes. The variation between the peaks and valleys established an array of habitat niches with numerous isolated unique animals and plant species populations. Over 600 vertebrate species are living in the Great Basin Desert. About 63 of these were identified as vertebrates of conservative concern because of their contracting territories. The desert’s climate starts with the 14,000 feet Sierra Nevada which casts a huge rain-shadow over the region. The humid weather from the Pacific Ocean loses its moisture as it blows over the steep mountain. The annual precipitation in the east averages at 12 inches while the west receives about 9 inches of rainfall. The terrain is extremely mountainous, and the temperature varies depending on the altitude. The temperature reduces by 3.6°F for every 1,000 feet gained, which translates to a difference of about 30°F between the valley floors and the summit of the mountains on any given day.

What are the deserts in Arizona?

The sub-regions of the desert include the Yuma Desert in southwest Arizona, the Colorado Desert in southeast California, and the Gran Desierto de-Altar in Mexico which stretches over 770 square miles of the mountainous region and desert.

How many species of plants are there in the Sonorant Desert?

The sonorant Desert has over 2,000 native-plant species, 1,000 bee species, 30 native fish species, 100 reptile species, 20 amphibian species, and 350 bird species. The only jaguar population in the United States lives in this desert right near the American- Mexican boundary. Some of the plants which are adapted to the harsh environmental ...

Where is the Sonoran Desert located?

The Sonoran Desert occupies a large part of Baja California Sur, Baja California, and Sonora in Northwestern Mexico and California and Arizona in the southwestern parts of the US. The desert occupies an area of about 100,000 square miles. The western part of the Mexico-United States boundary passes through this desert. The sub-regions of the desert include the Yuma Desert in southwest Arizona, the Colorado Desert in southeast California, and the Gran Desierto de-Altar in Mexico which stretches over 770 square miles of the mountainous region and desert. Other sub-regions include Yuha Desert in Imperial Valley, California, Tonopah Desert situated west of Phoenix, and Lechuguilla Desert which lies near the Mexican-United States boundary in Arizona. The sonorant Desert has over 2,000 native-plant species, 1,000 bee species, 30 native fish species, 100 reptile species, 20 amphibian species, and 350 bird species. The only jaguar population in the United States lives in this desert right near the American- Mexican boundary. Some of the plants which are adapted to the harsh environmental conditions in this desert belong to the legume, cactus, palm, and agave families.

What is the desert in North America?

North American Desert:The vast arid region between the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada of western North America, encompassing all four major American deserts.

What is the desert in Arizona?

Bordered on the south by the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. Mojave Desert: A portion of southern Nevada, extreme southwestern Utah and of eastern California, north of the Sonoran Desert. Sonoran Desert: An arid region covering approximately 100,000 square miles in southwestern Arizona and southeastern California, as well as most ...

What is the name of the elevated portion of the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona?

Arizona Upland Desert:That elevated portion of the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona characterized by Saguaro Cactus.

Why are the deserts called hot?

Three of these deserts -- the Chihuahuan, the Sonoran and the Mojave -- are called "hot deserts," because of their high temperatures during the long summer and because the evolutionary affinities of their plant life are largely with the subtropical plant communities to the south. The Great Basin Desert is called a "cold desert" because it is generally cooler and its dominant plant life is not subtropical in origin.

What is the name of the desert in Utah?

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park exists within the Colorado Desert. Escalante Desert: A subdivision of the Great Basin desert just west of Cedar Breaks in southwestern Utah. Great American Desert:An ill-defined, semiarid region of the Great Plains, or, all of the North American deserts combined. Great Sandy Desert: Asubdivision ...

What is the Red Desert?

Red Desert: The semiarid region of southwestern Wyoming, sometimes considered an extension of the Great Basin Desert. Salton Troughis defined by the US Geological Survey as a a basin existing east of the Peninsular Ranges of Southern California and west of the San Andreas Fault in the vicinity of the Salton Sea.

What determines the community of plants in a desert?

Plant communities, in turn, are determined by the geologic history of a region, the soil and mineral conditions, the elevation and the patterns of precipitation.

How much of the world is covered by deserts?

Although the word “desert” may bring to mind a sea of shifting sand, dune s cover only about 10 percent of the world’s deserts. Some deserts are mountainous.

How much precipitation does a desert receive?

Most experts agree that a desert is an area of land that receives no more than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of precipitation a year. The amount of evaporation in a desert often greatly exceed s the annual rainfall. In all deserts, there is little water available for plants and other organisms.

What is the largest desert in the world?

The world’s largest hot desert, the Sahara, is a subtropical desert in northern Africa. The Sahara Desert is almost the size of the entire continental United States. Other subtropical deserts include the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa and the Tanami Desert in northern Australia. Coastal Deserts.

Why do deserts exist?

Interior Deserts. Interior desert s, which are found in the heart of continents, exist because no moisture-laden winds reach them. By the time air masses from coastal areas reach the interior, they have lost all their moisture. Interior deserts are sometimes called inland deserts.

What causes subtropical deserts?

Subtropical Deserts. Subtropical desert s are caused by the circulation patterns of air mass es. They are found along the Tropic of Cancer, between 15 and 30 degrees north of the Equator, or along the Tropic of Capricorn, between 15 and 30 degrees south of the Equator.

What are the adjectives for deserts?

People often use the adjectives “hot,” “dry,” and “empty” to describe deserts, but these words do not tell the whole story. Although some deserts are very hot, with daytime temperature s as high as 54°C (130°F), other deserts have cold winters or are cold year-round. And most deserts, far from being empty and lifeless, ...

Where does water come from in the desert?

Rain is usually the main source of water in a desert, but it falls very rarely. Many desert dwellers rely on groundwater, stored in aquifer s below the surface. Groundwater comes from rain or other precipitation, like snow or hail. It seeps into the ground, where it can remain for thousands of years.

What is the largest desert in North America?

This desert extends more than 500 miles south into Mexico. The Chihuahuan is the largest desert in North America-stretching.

What are the vegetation types in the North American desert?

They are characterized by aridity with annual precipitation between 130 to 380 mm. Shrub, succulents, and cactus are the predominant vegetation.

What is the wet season in the desert?

Cold Deserts and semi deserts are characterized by marked seasonal extremes. Winter is the wet season distinguished by presipitation in the form of snow.

How deep is the Grand Canyon?

Grand Canyon National Park: The park is home to the immense Grand Canyon; a mile (1.6 km) deep, and up to 18 miles (29 km) wide, with layered bands of colorful rock revealing millions of years of geologic history.

What are the causes of aridity in the Sierra Nevada?

The aridity is the result of the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Mountains, and Sierra Madre ranges as they intercept the wet winter air masses brought by the westerly winds. The Rocky Mountains also block some moist from the Gulf Coast that cross the Great Plains. CEC.org.

What is the Arizona New Mexico Plateau?

The Arizona/New Mexico Plateau represents a transitional area between the drier shrublands and wooded higher relief of the Colorado Plateaus in the north, and the the lower, hotter, less vegetated Mojave Basin to the west.

What is the vegetation in the Wyoming Basin?

The region contains a greater extent of pinyon-juniper and Gambel oak woodlands than the Wyoming Basin up north. Summer moisture from thunderstorms supports warm season grasses. Many endemic plants occur and species diversity is high.

Summary

Overview

The following are three major hot and dry deserts in North America, all located in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.
• 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 km ).
• The Sonoran Desert is a desert located in the Southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. It is the seco…

Full listing

Western arid regions of North America

See also