Sub-region Deserts
The desert's sub-regions include the Colorado Desert of southeastern California; and the Yuma Desert east of the north-to-south section of the Colorado River in southwest Arizona. In the 1957 publication, Vegetation of the Sonoran Desert, Forrest Shreve divided the Sonoran Desert into seven regions according to characteristic vegetation: Lower Colorado Valley, Arizona Upland, Plains of Sonora, Foothills of Sonora, Central Gulf Coast, Vizcaíno Region, and Magdalena Region. Many ecologists now consider Shreve's Vizcaíno and Magdalena regions, which lie on the western side of the Baja California Peninsula, to be a separate ecoregion, the Baja California desert.
Within the southern Sonoran Desert in Mexico is found the Gran Desierto de Altar, with the Reserva de la Biosfera el Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar ('Pinacate National Park' in Mexico), extending 2,000 square kilometers (770 sq mi) of desert and mountainous regions. The Pinacate National Park includes the only active Erg dune region in North America. The nearest city to the Reserva de la Biosfera el Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar is Puerto Peñasco (a.k.a. 'Rocky Point') in the state of Sonora, Mexico.
- Sub-regions
Sonoran Desert sub-regions include:
- Colorado Desert
- Gran Desierto de Altar
- Lechuguilla Desert
- Tonopah Desert
- Yuha Desert
- Yuma Desert
Read more about this topic: Sonoran Desert
Famous quotes containing the word deserts:
“Henceforth I shall know
That Nature neer deserts the wise and pure;”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (17721834)