The Basin and Range Province is a vast physiographic region defined by a unique topographic expression. Basin and range topography is characterized by abrupt changes in elevation, alternating between narrow faulted mountain chains and flat arid valleys or basins. The region covers most of the western United States, extends into northwestern Mexico and is mostly desert, with numerous ecoregions. The physiography of the province is the result of tectonic extension that began around 17 Ma (million years ago) in Early Miocene time.
Clarence Dutton famously compared the many narrow parallel mountain ranges that distinguish the unique topography of the Basin and Range to an "army of caterpillars marching toward Mexico", which is a helpful way to visualize the overall appearance of the region. The Basin and Range province should not be confused with The Great Basin, which is a sub-section of the greater Basin and Range physiographic region defined by its unique hydrological characteristics (internal drainage).
Read more about Basin And Range Province: Geography, Geology, Volcanism, Mineral Resources
Other articles related to "basin and range province, basin and range, ranges":
... In addition to small amounts of Nevada petroleum, the Basin and Range province supplies nearly all the copper and most of the gold, silver, and barite mined in the United States ...
... The Basin and Range Province is a region occupying the southern part of Arizona, along with a strip of land consisting of the western part of the state ... The Basin and Range is characterized by steep, linear mountain ranges alternating with lengthy deserts ... The mountain ranges, which poke through the lengthy desert plains surrounding them, can rise above 9,000 feet (2,700 m), and create biological islands inhabited by cool-climate plants and animals ...
Famous quotes containing the words province and/or range:
“Female Virtues are of a Domestick turn. The Family is the proper Province for Private Women to Shine in. If they must be showing their Zeal for the Publick, let it not be against those who are perhaps of the same Family, or at least of the same Religion or Nation, but against those who are the open, professed, undoubted Enemies of their Faith, Liberty, and Country.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“The Canadians of those days, at least, possessed a roving spirit of adventure which carried them further, in exposure to hardship and danger, than ever the New England colonist went, and led them, though not to clear and colonize the wilderness, yet to range over it as coureurs de bois, or runners of the woods, or, as Hontan prefers to call them, coureurs de risques, runners of risks; to say nothing of their enterprising priesthood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)