Isla Ángel de la Guarda, (Guardian Angel Island) also called Archangel Island, is a large

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

(Sea of Cortez) east of

Bahía de los Ángeles ("Bay of the Angels") is a coastal bay on the Gulf of California, located along the eastern shore of the Baja California Peninsula in the state of Baja California, Mexico. The town of the same name is located at the east end of Federal Highway ...

in northwestern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, separated from the Baja California Peninsula by the Canal de Ballenas (Whales Channel). It is the second largest of the eleven Midriff Islands or Islas Grandes. It is part of the state of

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, located northwest of Tiburón Island. It is a biological reserve called Isla Angel de la Guarda National Park. The island is part of the

Mexicali municipality Mexicali Municipality is a municipality (Mexico), municipality ( es, link=no, municipio) in the Mexican States of Mexico, state of Baja California. Its municipal seat ( es, link=no, cabecera municipal) is located in the city of Mexicali. As of 20 ...

. The geologically active Ballenas Fault runs along the seabed of the linear Canal de Ballenas. A 6.9 magnitude earthquake occurred on this fault in 2009.

Geography

The island is extremely dry, with no sources of freshwater other than washes following rainfall. It has an area of and a chain of mountains runs along its 69 km length, reaching a maximum of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

. It runs northwest to southeast. The west coast is roughly straight in that direction, but the east coast runs inward near the middle before heading outward until it reaches the island's widest point. The coast then runs south for a while before finally returning to its southeasterly direction. Much of the island is inaccessible due to mountains at or near the shore, especially on the west coast. There are a few flat areas on the coast at the outlets of washes that were created by sediment. These

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

s are mostly on the east coast, but a large one is found on the west coast where the island narrows in the middle. Much of the island's geology is made up of volcanic and alluvial sand deposits.

Biology

Despite its extreme dryness, the island is relatively diverse in plant and animal life. There are many types of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s and reptiles, especially lizards. The

Angel Island chuckwalla The Angel Island chuckwalla (''Sauromalus hispidus''), also known as the spiny chuckwalla, is a species of chuckwalla lizard belonging to the family Iguanidae endemic to Isla Ángel de la Guarda (Guardian Angel Island) in the Gulf of California. ...

, Angel Island speckled rattlesnake (''Crotalus angelensis'') and

Angel Island mouse The Angel Island mouse (''Peromyscus guardia''), or La Guarda deermouse, is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. Distribution It is endemic to Mexico, where it is historically known only from the island of Ángel de la Guarda and near ...

(''Peromyscus guardia'') occur only on the island. The only mammals are

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

s, and introduced

feral cat A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...

s. Plants include elephant trees, cacti,

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

es, shrubs, succulents, and

boojum tree ''Fouquieria columnaris'', the Boojum tree or ''cirio'' () is a tree in the ocotillo family,(Fouquieriaceae) whose other members include the ocotillos. Some taxonomists place it in the separate genus ''Idria''. It is nearly endemic to the Baja ...

Notes

References

The Columbia Gazetteer of North America
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isla Angel De La Guarda Islands of Mexicali Municipality Islands of the Gulf of California Nature reserves in Mexico Protected areas of Baja California Uninhabited islands of Mexico Important Bird Areas of Mexico

Geography

Biology

See also

Notes

References