Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert ( Mojave Desert English [ vi ː ː məhɑ ] ), also known as the Mohave Desert, is a desert in western North America. It covers 35,000 square kilometers in the area of the U.S. states of California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona. The desert is a typical American desert basin, which is bordered by the Tehachapi Mountains, the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernardino Mountains. Your western edges are very distinct, since they consist of the two major continental fault zones of California, the San Andreas Fault and the Garlock fault zone.

The Mojave Desert is located in the rain shadow deserts. Rain shadow deserts can arise only when they are surrounded by mountains, which can accumulate and the clouds rain down, so that no more water is left for the land behind the mountains.

Climate

The Mojave has a rainfall of up to 150 millimeters per year. In this desert is one of the hottest places, Death Valley. Here are July and August average reaches temperatures of over 45 ° C in the months. It is also home to the Mojave National Preserve, a wilderness reserve. The main source of water of the desert is the Mojave River, which passes into the endorheic Mojave Sink.

Geography

The Mojave Desert covers parts of the Southeast of California, southern Nevada, northwestern Arizona and southwestern Utah. It is bordered on the north by the Great Basin and south to the Sonoran Desert. The Colorado River flows through the east, in the west it is bounded by the Sierra Nevada, whose high peaks chains are mainly responsible for causing this rain shadow desert.

The desert is a part of the Basin and Range Province. In it, there are some abandoned towns, so-called ghost towns. The best known is the California town of Calico, has been searched for in the past for silver. Other ghost towns built during the construction of Route 66 as well as former U.S. Highways 91

The main cities are Las Vegas ( Nevada) and the California cities of Victorville, Barstow and Needles.

Ecology

Typical of the Mojave Desert is the Joshua Yucca (Yucca brevifolia ), with an English name "Joshua Tree". This Agavengewächs is found only in this desert. According to her the location in the Mojave Desert Joshua Tree National Park was named. In addition to some mammals live in the Mojave numerous reptiles such as the California tortoise and the Mojave rattlesnake and Texas. To the west of the Mojave Desert Poppy Family come before the genus Arctomecon. Arctomecon humilis is one of the most endangered species of the United States.

Economy and Transport

Due to their proximity to metropolitan Los Angeles and a relatively uniform insolation of more than 2,100 kWh / kWp / year, the Mojave Desert is ideal for the production of renewable energy. Since the 1980s, in the Mojave Desert, therefore, a wide variety of solar power plants, built with a joint capacity of 354 MW for test purposes. In order for the Mojave Desert was for decades the most significant solar region of the world. Only through the massive promotion of photovoltaics in Germany lost the Mojave Desert this position.

Due to rising costs of fossil fuels and technical progress, the solar technology is increasingly economically competitive end of 2010 in the Mojave Desert. Therefore, since that time many other solar power plants (photovoltaic power stations and solar thermal power plants ) are being planned and built in the Mojave Desert. For the first time also large power plants with more than 250 MW are projected which only small subsidies (< 30 percent of the construction costs) need (as of 2010 ).

Tourist known roads through the desert are the Route 66 as well as former U.S. Highway 91 Other highways in the Mojave are U.S. Highway 395, Interstate 15 and Interstate 40

Also located in the Mojave Desert Mojave Air & Space Port Airport. He is known primarily as a parking space for disused civilian aircraft, so as airplane graveyard.

Gallery

Water hole, Coyote Dry Lake

Kingston Range

Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia ), English "Joshua Trees"

The Marble Mountains