What is the largest desert in North America?
Quick answer
The answer depends on how deserts are defined. The Great Basin Desert, covering much of Nevada and western Utah, is often called the largest desert in North America and the largest in the United States. The Chihuahuan Desert, mostly in Mexico, is the largest hot desert, at about 360,000 km² (140,000 sq mi).
North America’s four great deserts
| Desert | Type | Where | Signature plant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Basin | Cold | Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Idaho | Sagebrush |
| Chihuahuan | Hot | Northern Mexico, Texas, New Mexico | Agave, creosote bush |
| Sonoran | Hot | Arizona, California, Mexico | Saguaro cactus |
| Mojave | Hot | California, Nevada | Joshua tree |
Different sources draw the boundaries differently, so their sizes vary. Some include large areas of grassland and shrubland in the Chihuahuan, which can make it the largest overall.
A cold desert
The Great Basin is a cold desert: most of its precipitation falls as snow, and winters are freezing. It’s dry because the Sierra Nevada blocks moist air from the Pacific, creating a rain shadow. Its rivers don’t reach the sea; they end in lakes or disappear into the ground, which is why the region is called a “basin.” The largest of these lakes is the Great Salt Lake.
Death Valley
The Mojave contains Death Valley, which holds the record for the highest air temperature ever reliably recorded, 56.7 °C (134 °F) in 1913. Its Badwater Basin, 86 m below sea level, is the lowest point in North America, only about 135 km from the highest point in the lower 48 states; see the tallest mountain in the contiguous US.
Desert life
Despite the heat or cold, North American deserts are full of life: roadrunners, Gila monsters, desert tortoises, kangaroo rats and bighorn sheep. The Sonoran Desert is one of the most biologically diverse deserts in the world.
Bigger deserts elsewhere
By the scientific definition, the world’s largest desert is Antarctica, followed by the Arctic and then the Sahara. Asia’s largest is the Gobi.
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