Пустыни Северной Америки: Описание и Классификация

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This list of North American deserts identifies areas of the continent that receive less than annual precipitation. The "North American Desert" is also the term for a large U. S. Level 1 ecoregion (EPA) of the North American Cordillera, in the Deserts and xeric shrublands biome (WWF). The continent's deserts are largely between the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Madre Oriental on the east, and the rain shadow–creating Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Transverse, and Peninsular Ranges on the west. The North American xeric region of over 95751 square miles (247,994 km2) includes three major deserts, numerous smaller deserts, and large non desert arid regions in the Western United States and in northeastern, central, and northwestern Mexico.

The following are three major hot and dry deserts in North America, all located in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest hot desert in North America, located in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. Its total area is The Sonoran Desert is a desert located in the Southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. It is the second largest hot desert in North America. Its total area is The Mojave Desert is the hottest desert in North America, located primarily in southeastern California and Southern Nevada. Its total area is
The largest cold desert is the Great Basin Desert, which encompasses much of the northern Basin and Range Province, north of the Mojave Desert. Other cold deserts lie within the Columbia Plateau/Columbia Basin, the Snake River Plain, and the Colorado Plateau regions.

The separately defined western arid regions of North America are continental regions of aridity based on available water in addition to rain shadow diminished rainfall and which have many non desert shrub steppe (EPA) and xeric shrublands (WWF) in addition to desert ecosystems and ecoregions. This large arid region of 190000 square miles (492,098 km2) includes: deserts, such as the Great Basin Desert and Sonoran Desert; and the non desert arid region areas (with greater than annual precipitation) in the Great Basin arid region, Colorado Plateau, Mexican Plateau, and others. This arid region extends from the top of the North American Desert in Washington and Idaho southward into Mexico in the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt. The 'western arid region' is east of and (except for Mojave sky islands) discontiguous from the Mojave Desert, unlike the southwestern Great Basin deserts adjacent with ecotones to the northern Mojave Desert.