Week 3- Colorado Desert

A desert is a region where little precipitation occurs and living conditions are hostile for plants and animals. Deserts cover about one fifth of the earths surface. Deserts are part of a wider class of regions called dry lands. These areas exist under a moisture deficit, which means they frequently lose more moisture through evaporation than they receive from annual precipitation. 

The Colorado Desert is part of the Sonoran Desert. It extends from southeastward for 164 miles from the San Gorgonio pass in southeastern California, to the Colorado River delta in northern Mexico. The climate in the Colorado Desert is different from other deserts because the region experiences greater summer daytime temperatures than higher-elevation deserts and almost never experiences frost. The Colorado desert typically experiences two rainy seasons per year, in the winter and late summer. This regions geology is dominated by the transition of the tectonic plate boundary from rift to fault. This area is subjected to earthquakes, and the crust is being stretched which will cause sinking of the terrain over time.