Mojave Desert Totally Explained

For the indigenous American tribe, see Mohave. The Mojave Desert (IPA: /ˌmoʊˈhɑvi/ or /məˈhɑvi/), locally referred to as the High Desert, occupies a significant portion of southern California and smaller parts of Northern California, southwestern Utah, southern Nevada, and northwestern Arizona, in the United States. Named after the Mohave tribe of Native Americans, it occupies well over 22,000 square miles (57,000 km²) in a typical Basin and Range topography.
The Mojave Desert's boundaries are generally defined by the presence of Joshua Trees — they're considered an indicator species for the 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're outlined by the two largest faults in California: the San Andreas and the Garlock. The Great Basin shrub steppe lies to the north; the warmer Sonoran Desert (the Low Desert) lies to the south and east. The desert is believed to have between 1,750 and 2,000 species of plants.

Climate

The Mojave Desert receives less than 10 inches (250 mm) of rain a year and is generally between 3,000 and 6,000 feet (1,000 and 2,000 m) in elevation. The Mojave Desert also contains the Mojave National Preserve, as well as the lowest and hottest place in North America: Death Valley, where the temperature normally approaches 120° F (49° C) in late July and early August. Zion National Park, in Utah, lies at the junction of the Mojave, the Great Basin, and the Colorado Plateau. Despite its aridity, the Mojave (and particularly the Antelope Valley in its southwest) has long been a center of alfalfa production, fed by irrigation coming from groundwater and (in the 20th century) from the California Aqueduct.
   The Mojave is a desert of temperature extremes and four distinct seasons. Winter months bring temperatures dipping to below 20 °F (-7 °C) on valley floors, and below 0 °F (-18 °C) at higher elevations. Storms moving from the Pacific Northwest can bring rain and snow across the region — more often, the rain shadow created by the Sierra Nevada as well as mountain ranges within the desert such as the Spring Mountains bring only clouds and wind. In longer periods between storm systems, winter temperatures in valleys can approach 80 °F (27 °C).
   Spring weather continues to be influenced by Pacific storms, but rainfall is more widespread and occurs less frequently after April. By early June, it's rare for another Pacific storm to have a significant impact on the region's weather, and temperatures after mid-May are normally above 90 °F (32 °C) and frequently above 100 °F (38 °C).
   Summer weather is dominated by heat — temperatures on valley floors can soar above 120 °F (49 °C) and above 130 °F (54 °C) at the lowest elevations — and the presence of the North American monsoon. Low humidity, high temperatures and low pressure draw in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, creating thunderstorms across the desert southwest. While the Mojave doesn't get nearly the amount of rainfall that the Sonoran desert to the east receives, monsoonal moisture will create thunderstorms as far west as California's Central Valley from mid-June through early September.
   Autumns are generally pleasant, with one to two Pacific storm systems creating regional rain events. October is one of the driest and sunniest months in the Mojave, and temperatures usually remain between 70 °F (21 °C) and 90 °F (32 °C) on the valley floors.
   Wind is the most significant non-temperature-related weather phenomenon in the Mojave. Across the region, windy days are common, and in areas near the transition between the Mojave and the California low valleys, including near Cajon Pass, Soledad Canyon and the Tehachapi areas. During the June Gloom, cooler air can be pushed out into the desert from Southern California; in Santa Ana wind events, hot air from the desert blows out into the Los Angeles basin and other coastal areas. Wind farms in these areas generate power from these winds.
   The other major weather factor in the region is elevation. The highest peak within the Mojave is Charleston Peak at 11,918 feet (3,633 m), while Badwater in Death Valley is 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. Accordingly, temperatures and precipitation ranges wildly, in all seasons, across the region.

Cities and regions

While the Mojave Desert itself is sparsely populated, it has increasingly become urbanized in recent years. Las Vegas, Nevada is the largest city in the Mojave, with a metropolitan population of around 1.9 million in 2006. Palmdale is the largest city in California in the desert, and over 850,000 people live in areas of the Mojave attached to the Greater Los Angeles metroplex, including Palmdale and Lancaster (referred to as the Antelope Valley); and Victorville and Hesperia (referred to as the Victor Valley). Smaller cities in the Mojave include St. George; Lake Havasu City; Kingman; Laughlin; and Bullhead City; and Pahrump. All have experienced rapid population growth since 1990.
   Towns with fewer than 30,000 people in the Mojave include Barstow, California; Needles, California; Ridgecrest, California; Mesquite, Nevada; Hurricane, Utah; Moapa Valley, Nevada; California City, California; Twentynine Palms, California; and Mojave, California. The California portion of the desert also contains Edwards Air Force Base, the home of several past and current experimental aviation projects for the military.
   The Mojave Desert contains a number of ghost towns, the most significant of these being the silver-mining town of Calico, California and the old railroad depot of Kelso. Some of the other ghost towns are of the more modern variety, created when Route 66 (and the lesser-known US Highway 91) were abandoned in favor of the Interstates. The Mojave Desert is crossed by major highways Interstate 15, Interstate 40, US Highway 395 and US Highway 95.
   Other than the Colorado River on the eastern half of the Mojave, few long streams cross the desert. The Mojave River is an important source of water for the southern parts of the desert. The Amargosa River flows from the Great Basin Desert south to near Beatty, Nevada, then underground through Ash Meadows before returning to the surface near Shoshone, California and ending in Death Valley.

Tourism

The Mojave Desert is one of the most popular tourism spots in North America, primarily because of gambling mecca Las Vegas. The desert is also known for its scenic beauty, with four national parks – Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Zion and Grand Canyon all within the desert or adjoining it. Lakes Mead, Mohave and Havasu provide watersport recreation, and sand dunes in the region entice off-road enthusiasts.
Besides the major national parks there are other areas of identified significance and tourist interest in the desert such as the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, which spans the Mojave and Colorado Desert, and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, 17 miles west of Las Vegas, both of which are managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Among the more popular and unique tourist attractions in the Mojave is the self described world's tallest thermometer at 134 feet high, which is located along Interstate 15 in Baker, California. Kelso Dunes is also a popular recreation spot.

Mojave Desert in fiction

Louis L'Amour's novel, The Lonesome Gods, is based on the Mojave Desert for its first half, from crossing the Colorado River at Arizona, to leading into the Coachella Valley as the protagonist reaches Agua Caliente, CA.

In the MTV movie Beavis and Butthead Do America, Beavis and Butthead are left stranded in the Mojave Desert where they meet their long-lost fathers, nearly die of thirst, and Beavis has psychedelic hallucinations after eating a peyote cactus. They are awakened by Muddy Grimes, who forces them at gunpoint to ride in his trunk.

The Newcomer ship in Alien Nation hovered over the Mojave Desert at its fictional 1988 arrival.

In Stephen King's short story The Langoliers a time rip is situated over the Mojave Desert.

Nicole Krauss's novel Man Walks Into A Room takes place largely in the Mojave Desert. Its amnesiac protagonist is found wandering there, and later returns to an experimental facility situated there in order to undergo memory research.

Fictional character Captain Christopher Pike of the Star Trek universe called the Mojave his home, having grown up in the town of Mojave, built in what was once desert "wasteland".

The play Fool For Love, written and directed by Sam Shepard in 1983, takes place on the edge of the Mojave Desert.

The Mojave Desert has been featured five times throughout the series of the FOX hit drama television show, 24:

In the first season of 24, terrorist, Mandy, blew up a 747 airplane and then parachuted into the Mojave Desert.
In the second season of 24, George Mason sacrifices his life to dispose of a nuclear bomb safely in the Mojave Desert.
In the fourth season of 24, Air Force One was shot down by a stealth fighter over the Mojave Desert and Jack Bauer had to go in and find the Nuclear Football briefcase, which was among the wreckage of the aircraft, before the terrorists could get it.
In the first episode of the fifth season of 24, Jack Bauer is living and working (under an assumed name in order to avoid detection by American or Chinese authorities) in the city of Mojave, CA.
In the sixth episode of the sixth season, Anatoly Markov reveals that Fayed's and Gredenko's base of operations was Shadow Valley within the Mojave Desert.

In Hunter S. Thompson's book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and its film adaptation, when Raoul Duke, Dr. Gonzo and the hitchhiker are on their way to Las Vegas, they're driving through the Mojave Desert.

The stark back-drop for Madonna's 1997 comeback "Frozen" video is the desert shot through a cold filter.

In the PlayStation video game Parasite Eve 2, the majority of the storyline unfolds in a small town called Dryfield (said in game to be located in the Mojave desert).

The music video for the Spice Girls' second single, "Say You'll Be There", was shot in this desert in September 1996.

The post-apocalyptic computer game Wasteland is set in the area.

Paulo Coelho's book, The Valkyries, is set in the Mojave Desert.

The music video for the Interpol single "NYC" was shot at an airplane graveyard in the Mojave Desert.

In the novel Nightrise, by Anthony Horowitz, Telepathic Twins Jamie and Scott Tyler are imprisoned in the Silent Creek juvenile center, located at the bottom of a basin in the Mojave Desert, in which a natural magnetic field is present capable of negating the abilities of those possessing powers of the mind (Telepathy, Telekinesis, etc).

Native Mojave plants and animals

Plants

Beaver Tail Prickly Pear

California Fan Palm

Camissonia campestris Mojave suncup

Cooper dyssodia

Death Valley monkeyflower

Desert candle

Desert five-spot

Desert larkspur

Desert Lily

Desert rock pea

Desert star

Erigeron concinnus

Ipomopsis arizonica

Island Oak No longer found in the Mojave Desert.

Joshua Tree

Jojoba

Mojave sage

Mormon Tea

Yucca brevifolia

Animals

Chuckwalla

Cougar

Coyote

Desert tortoise

Hummingbird

Jackrabbit

Kangaroo Rat

Mojave Green Rattlesnake

Mohave tui chub - an endangered fish

Mule Deer

Pronghorn

Red-tailed Hawk

Scorpion

Tarantula

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Zebra-tailed lizard

Photos from the Mojave Desert

Image:Mojave_Pinnacles.jpg|Pinnacles National Natural Landmark Image:Mojave_Kelso.jpg|Kelso Sand Dunes Image:Mojave_AftonCanyon.jpg|Slot Canyon in Afton Canyon Image:Mojave_DustDevil.jpg|Dust Devil, El Mirage Dry Lake Image:Mojave_CoyoteDryLake.jpg|Water hole, Coyote Dry Lake Image:Mojave_Rainbow2.jpg|Rainbow Canyon, near the city of Barstow Image:Mojave_Amboy.jpg|Amboy Crater Image:Mojave_SummerStorm.jpg|Summer Storm Image:Pioneerhomenearstgeorge.jpg|Pioneer cabin remains near St. George, Utah.

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