The Sonoran Desert is a hot 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. It is the hottest desert in both Mexico and the United States. It has an area of 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 sq mi).
Saguaro National Park in Arizona
The Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona during winter.
Velvet mesquite (Prosopis velutina)
Washingtonia filifera in Anza Borrego Desert State Park
A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the land surface of the Earth is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the polar regions, where little precipitation occurs, and which are sometimes called polar deserts or "cold deserts". Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation that falls, by the temperature that prevails, by the causes of desertification or by their geographical location.
Sand and dunes of the Libyan Desert
Valle de la Luna ("Moon Valley") in the Atacama Desert of Chile, the world's driest non-polar desert
Atacama, the world's driest non-polar desert, part of the Arid Diagonal of South America
Flash flood in the Gobi