The Mojave Desert ( /moʊˈhɑːvi/ or /məˈhɑːvi/; High Desert) occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California; southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona in the United States. Named after the Mohave tribe of Native Americans, it displays typical basin and range topography.
The Mojave Desert's boundaries are generally defined by the presence of Yucca brevifolia (Joshua trees); considered an indicator species for this 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 are outlined by the two largest faults in California: the San Andreas and the Garlock. The Great Basin shrub steppe lies to the north, and the warmer Sonoran Desert (the Low Desert) lies to the south and east. The desert is believed to support between 1,750 and 2,000 species of plants.
While most of the Mojave desert is sparsely populated, several large cities can be found there including Lancaster, California and Victorville, California, with the largest being Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada.
Read more about Mojave Desert: Climate, Geography, Cities and Regions, Parks and Tourism, West Mojave Plan Litigation, In Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words mojave and/or desert:
“The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It’s as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California.”
—John Steinbeck (1902–1968)
“There were three classes of inhabitants who either frequent or inhabit the country which we had now entered: first, the loggers, who, for a part of the year, the winter and spring, are far the most numerous, but in the summer, except for a few explorers for timber, completely desert it; second, the few settlers I have named, the only permanent inhabitants, who live on the verge of it, and help raise supplies for the former; third, the hunters, mostly Indians, who range over it in their season.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)