The Mojave Desert ( /moʊˈhɑːvi/ or /məˈhɑːvi/; High Desert) occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California; southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona in the United States. Named after the Mohave tribe of Native Americans, it displays typical basin and range topography.
The Mojave Desert's boundaries are generally defined by the presence of Yucca brevifolia (Joshua trees); considered an indicator species for this desert. The topographical boundaries include the Tehachapi together with the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges. The mountain boundaries are quite distinct since they are outlined by the two largest faults in California: the San Andreas and the Garlock. The Great Basin shrub steppe lies to the north, and the warmer Sonoran Desert (the Low Desert) lies to the south and east. The desert is believed to support between 1,750 and 2,000 species of plants.
While most of the Mojave desert is sparsely populated, several large cities can be found there including Lancaster, California and Victorville, California, with the largest being Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada.
Read more about Mojave Desert: Climate, Geography, Cities and Regions, Parks and Tourism, West Mojave Plan Litigation, In Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words mojave and/or desert:
“The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It’s as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California.”
—John Steinbeck (1902–1968)
“What though the traveler tell us of the ruins of Egypt, are we so sick or idle that we must sacrifice our America and today to some man’s ill-remembered and indolent story? Carnac and Luxor are but names, or if their skeletons remain, still more desert sand and at length a wave of the Mediterranean Sea are needed to wash away the filth that attaches to their grandeur. Carnac! Carnac! here is Carnac for me. I behold the columns of a larger
and purer temple.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)