Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
Metropolitan Statistical Area
In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or tow ...
.
Geography
Mohawk is located on the south border of the Gila River valley on Interstate 8; it is 13 miles east of
Tacna
Tacna is a city in southern Peru and the regional capital of the Tacna Region. A very commercially active city, it is located only north of the border with Arica y Parinacota Region from Chile, inland from the Pacific Ocean and in the valley of ...
, also on Interstate 8. East of Mohawk is Dateland and
Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...
. Just northeast located in the Gila River valley is Hyder which lies in the
Hyder Valley
The Hyder Valley is a 20-mile (32 km) long valley section of the Gila River Valley west of Hyder on the Gila River. The valley is located north of Gila River in southwest Arizona in the northwestern Sonoran Desert. The Park Valley, which cro ...
at the southern end of the
Palomas Plain Palomas may refer to:
Places
* Palomas (Madrid), a ward of the Hortaleza district, Madrid, Spain
* Palomas, Arizona, a community in the United States
* Palomas, Badajoz, Spain, a town
* Palomas, Comerío, Puerto Rico, a barrio in Comerío, a munici ...
, draining southeastwards from the eastern perimeter of the
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
The Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is located in Arizona in the southwestern United States, northeast of Yuma and southeast of Quartzsite. The refuge, established in 1939 to protect desert bighorn sheep, encompasses over of the Yuma Desert re ...
, and the eastern regions of the
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
Yuma Proving Ground
Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) is a United States Army series of environmentally specific test centers with its Yuma Test Center being one of the largest military installations in the world. It is subordinate to the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation ...
.''Arizona Atlas & Gazetteer,'' DeLorme, 4th ed., 2001, p. 63,
Mohawk is located at the northern end of the
Mohawk Mountains
The Mohawk Mountains ( mrc, Vii Kachkwiny, ood, Kusvo To:b) is a mountain range in the northwest Sonoran Desert of southwest Arizona. It abuts the western Gila River valley to the north (the Lower Gila River Valley), and is located in southern ...
–
Bryan Mountains
The Bryan Mountains are a small mountain range in the northwestern Sonoran Desert of southwestern Arizona. The range is located in southeastern Yuma County, about southeast of Yuma and about west of Ajo. The range is approximately ten miles ...
block fault
Fault blocks are very large blocks of rock, sometimes hundreds of kilometres in extent, created by tectonic and localized stresses in Earth's crust. Large areas of bedrock are broken up into blocks by faults. Blocks are characterized by rela ...
ed ranges, which are part of an eleven mountain range–valley region in southern Yuma County. The Mohawk Valley drains northwestwards towards Mohawk on the west of the ranges; the
San Cristobal Valley
The San Cristobal Valley is a valley in the lower regions of the western Gila River Valley in southwestern Arizona in the western Sonoran Desert. The San Cristobal Wash drains northwest, but exists only in the southern half of the valley.
The San ...
drains mostly north on the east side of the ranges. The drainages do not make it to the Gila River because the region is an extensive region of valleys– bajada plains. The area is part of the central, and hot and arid southwestern region of the
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Ariz ...
. It is also just north of the
Gran Desierto de Altar
The Gran Desierto de Altar is one of the major sub-ecoregions of the Sonoran Desert, located in the State of Sonora, in northwest Mexico. It includes the only active erg dune region in North America. The desert extends across much of the northern ...
This area has a large amount of sunshine year round due to its stable descending air and high pressure. According to the
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, notabl ...
system, Mohawk has a
desert 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 deser ...
Valley and range sequence-Southern Yuma County
The Valley and range sequence-Southern Yuma County is a ''3-Valley'' sequence of NW–by–SE trending block faulted valleys and mountains. About eleven major mountain ranges connect to each other in four, (mostly parallel), mountain sequences.
...