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Ragged Top
Ragged Top is a mountain summit located within Ironwood Forest National Monument, in Pima County of southern Arizona. It is situated 35 miles northwest of Tucson, in the Silver Bell Mountains, where it rises over above the surrounding terrain as a landmark of the area. Ragged Top is the biological and geological crown jewel of the monument for sightseeing and wildlife viewing, such as the Desert bighorn sheep and the desert tortoise. Ragged Top contains the greatest richness of species within the Sonoran Desert, including 401 plant species. Cathestecum erectum (common name false grama) is only found on Ragged Top in the state of Arizona. Saguaro and ironwood forests cover the bajadas surrounding this mountain. This geographical feature lies within the Gila River drainage basin. Four small arches are located on this mountain.''Ironwood Forest National Monument Proposed Resource Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement'', US Department of the Interior Bureau of L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ironwood Forest National Monument
Ironwood Forest National Monument is located in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. Created by Bill Clinton by Presidential Proclamation 7320 on June 9, 2000, the monument is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior. The monument covers , of which are non-federal and include private land holdings and Arizona State School Trust lands. A significant concentration of ironwood (also known as desert ironwood, ''Olneya tesota'') trees is found in the monument, along with two federally recognized endangered animal and plant species. More than 200 Hohokam archaeological sites have been identified in the monument, dated between 600 and 1450. Flora and fauna Flora An array of flora are present in the Ironwood Forest National Monument. The lower elevations are in the Sonoran Desert ecoregion. One of the notable trees native here is the elephant tree (''Bursera microphylla'').C. Michael Hogan. 2009''Elephant Tree: Bursera micro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathestecum
''Cathestecum'' (common name false grama) is a genus of the North American plants in the grass family. The name is sometimes misspelled as ''Cathestechum''. ; SpeciesDavidse, G., M. Sousa Sánchez & A.O. Chater. 1994. Alismataceae a Cyperaceae. 6: i–xvi, 1–543. In G. Davidse, M. Sousa Sánchez & A.O. Chater (eds.) Flora Mesoamericana Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.. * '' Cathestecum brevifolium'' Swallen - Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, United States (Pima County in Arizona) * '' Cathestecum erectum'' Vasey & Hack. - Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, United States ( Big Bend region in Texas, southern Arizona) * '' Cathestecum prostratum'' J.Presl - Michoacán, Jalisco, Morelos, Oaxaca, Querétaro, Puebla, Guerrero * '' Cathestecum varium'' Swallen - Puebla, Oaxaca ; formerly included see ''Bouteloua ''Bouteloua'' is a genus of plants in the grass family. Members of the genus are commonly known as grama grass. Taxonomy and sy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mountains Of Arizona
Arizona is a landlocked state situated in the southwestern region of the United States of America. It has a vast and diverse geography famous for its deep canyons, high- and low-elevation deserts, numerous natural rock formations, and volcanic mountain ranges. Arizona shares land borders with Utah to the north, the Mexican state of Sonora to the south, New Mexico to the east, and Nevada to the northwest, as well as water borders with California and the Mexican state of Baja California to the southwest along the Colorado River. Arizona is also one of the Four Corners states and is diagonally adjacent to Colorado. Arizona has a total area of , making it the sixth largest U.S. state.Summary of 2000 Census Table 17 Of this area, just 0.3% consists of water, which makes Arizona the state with the second lowest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landforms Of Pima County, Arizona
A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great ocean basins. Physical characteristics Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, stratification, rock exposure and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, mounds, hills, ridges, cliffs, valleys, rivers, peninsulas, volcanoes, and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes, hills vs. mountains) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic waterbodies and sub-surface features. Mountains, hills, plateaux, and plains are the fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Mountains In The United States
This list includes significant mountain peaks and high points located in the United States arranged alphabetically by state, district, or territory. The highest peak or point in each state, district or territory is noted in bold. Significant mountain peaks and high points Alabama *Brindley Mountain *Cheaha Mountain, highest summit in the State of Alabama * Monte Sano Mountain *Capshaw Mountain * Dirtseller Mountain * Frog Mountain * Hawk Pride Mountain * Gunters Mountain * Sand Mountain (Alabama) *Keel Mountain (Alabama) *Halama Mountain Alaska * Afognak Mountain, summit of Afognak Island * Amak Volcano, active stratovolcano * Amherst Peak * Amulet Peak * Andy Simons Mountain * Annex Peak * Anvil Peak , active stratovolcano that forms the summit of Semisopochnoi Island * Arthur Peak * Asses Ears (Alaska) * Atna Peaks * Atuk Mountain , summit of St. Lawrence Island * Augustine Volcano, active lava dome that forms the summit of Augustine Island * Auk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arid Climate
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert climates are dry and hold little moisture, quickly evaporating the already little rainfall they receive. Covering 14.2% of earth's land area, hot deserts are the second most common type of climate on earth after the polar climate. There are two variations of a desert climate according to the Köppen climate classification: a hot desert climate (''BWh''), and a cold desert climate (''BWk''). To delineate "hot desert climates" from "cold desert climates", there are three widely used isotherms: most commonly a mean annual temperature of , or sometimes the coldest month's mean temperature of , so that a location with a ''BW'' type climate with the appropriate temperature above whichever isotherm is being used is classified as "hot arid sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Köppen Climate Classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notably in 1918 and 1936. Later, the climatologist Rudolf Geiger (1894–1981) introduced some changes to the classification system, which is thus sometimes called the Köppen–Geiger climate classification system. The Köppen climate classification divides climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on seasonal precipitation and temperature patterns. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (temperate), ''D'' (continental), and ''E'' (polar). Each group and subgroup is represented by a letter. All climates are assigned a main group (the first letter). All climates except for those in the ''E'' group are assigned a seasonal precipitation subgroup (the second letter). For example, ''Af'' indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Arch
A natural arch, natural bridge, or (less commonly) rock arch is a natural landform where an arch has formed with an opening underneath. Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, coastal cliffs, fins or stacks are subject to erosion from the sea, rivers or weathering (subaerial processes). Most natural arches are formed from narrow fins and sea stacks composed of sandstone or limestone with steep, often vertical, cliff faces. The formations become narrower due to erosion over geologic time scales. The softer rock stratum erodes away creating rock shelters, or alcoves, on opposite sides of the formation beneath the relatively harder stratum, or caprock, above it. The alcoves erode further into the formation eventually meeting underneath the harder caprock layer, thus creating an arch. The erosional processes exploit weaknesses in the softer rock layers making cracks larger and removing material more quickly than the caprock; however, the caprock itself continues to e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gila River
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of nearly that lies mainly within the U.S., but also extends into northern Sonora, Mexico. Indigenous peoples have lived along the river for at least 2,000 years, establishing complex agricultural societies before European exploration of the region began in the 16th century. However, European Americans did not permanently settle the Gila River watershed until the mid-19th century. During the 20th century, human development of the Gila River watershed prompted the construction of large diversion and flood control structures on the river and its tributaries, and consequently the Gila now contributes only a small fraction of its historic flow to the Colorado. The historic natural discharge of the river is around , and is now only . These eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bajada (geography)
A bajada consists of a series of coalescing alluvial fans along a mountain front. These fan-shaped deposits form by the deposition of sediment within a stream onto flat land at the base of a mountain.Desert Processes Working Grou"Summary: Alluvial Features, Bajadas", ''Knowledge Sciences, Inc.''. Retrieved on 9 October 2012 The usage of the term in landscape description or geomorphology derives from the Spanish word ''bajada'', generally having the sense of "descent" or "inclination". Formation and occurrence When a stream flows downhill, it picks up sediment along with other materials. As this stream emerges from a mountain front, the sediment carried begins to be deposited, such that coarser sediment is deposited closest to the base and the finer sediment grades outwards and deposits in a fan-shape away from the mountain face.National Geographic Society"Alluvial Fan" ''National Geographic''. Retrieved on 9 October 2012 The sediment is transported across a pediment Pedi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olneya Tesota
''Olneya tesota'' is a perennial flowering tree of the family Fabaceae, legumes (peas, beans, etc.), which is commonly known as ironwood, desert ironwood, or palo fierro in Spanish. It is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Olneya''. This tree is part of the western Sonoran Desert complex in the Southwestern United States. Description The desert ironwood grows as a bush or tree, reaching heights of about and average trunk diameters of about . Exceptionally, in larger protected washes it can reach greater height and a more massive trunk. In younger trees, the bark is gray, shiny, and smooth; in older trees the bark is broken open. The tree is evergreen, but can lose its leaves if temperatures fall below . In continual drought conditions the leaves will be lost. The leaves are bluish-green and pinnately compound. They are arranged on a petiole, long, with 6–9 leaflets (or variously up to 15, with 7 opposite and one terminal), each measuring . At the base of each pinn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saguaro
The saguaro (, ) (''Carnegiea gigantea'') is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus ''Carnegiea'' that can grow to be over tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California. The saguaro blossom is the state wildflower of Arizona. Its scientific name is given in honor of Andrew Carnegie. In 1994, Saguaro National Park, near Tucson, Arizona, was designated to help protect this species and its habitat. Saguaros have a relatively long lifespan, often exceeding 150 years. They may grow their first side arm around 75–100 years of age, but some never grow any arms. Arms are developed to increase the plant's reproductive capacity, as more apices lead to more flowers and fruit. A saguaro can absorb and store considerable amounts of rainwater, visibly expanding in the process, while slowly using the stored water as needed. This characteristic enables the sagua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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