| Mojave Desert |
Situated between the Great Basin Desert to the north and the
Sonoran to the south (mainly between 34 and 38°N latitudes), the Mojave,
a rainshadow desert, is defined by a combination of latitude, elevation,
geology, and indicator plants.
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| Elevations are generally between three and six thousand feet, although
Death Valley National Park includes both 11,049-foot Telescope Peak and
the lowest point in the United States 282 feet below sea level at Badwater.
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| Temperatures are a function of both latitude and altitude. Although the
Mojave Desert has the lowest absolute elevation and the highest maximum
temperature (134°F in Death Valley), it is north of the Sonoran Desert
and its average elevations are higher. As a result, its average temperatures
are lower than those of the Sonoran. |
| The Mojave is in what some geographers call the Basin and Range Province,
a landscape of alternating mountain ranges and their adjacent basins. Common
rock substrates include Precambrian gneisses and granites. Slopes are often
composed of metamorphic rocks, such as gneisses. |
| Mojave Desert vegetation is dominated by low, widely spaced shrubs. Vegetation
in the desert’s northern half closely resembles that of the Great Basin
Desert, as that in the southern half does the Sonoran. However, nearly one
quarter of all Mojave Desert plants are endemics. Synonymous with the Mojave
Desert is the Joshua tree. Other endemics are Parry saltbush and Mojave
sage. A more widely distributed plant, the creosote bush, dominates much
of the land surface, often in close association with white bursage. |
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http://www.nps.gov/jotr/nature/features/desert/mojave.html
last modified: 02/14/03
web editor: Sandra kaye |
