5 Sand Transport Paths in the Mojave Desert, Southwestern United States

نویسندگان

  • James R. Zimbelman
  • Steven H. Williams
چکیده

Remote sensing and field evidence are used to describe sand deposits found in associated pathways of emplacement in the eastern Mojave Desert. Two separate pathways are identified here: one extending eastward from the Bristol Playa through the Cadiz and Danby Playas and Rice Valley to the Colorado River, and a second parallel path extending eastward from Dale Playa through the Palen and Ford Playas to the Mule Mountains near the Colorado River. The preferential location of sand ramps on the west slopes of mountains along each path suggests that the eastward moving, wind-driven sand was not confined by topographic divides between separate drainage basins around the individual playas and valleys. Sediment analysis of selected samples shows that there are discreet associations of sand characteristics along the sand pathways, with an inferred similarity between the stabilized (vegetated) sands in Rice Valley, west of the Colorado River, and stabilized sand dunes on Cactus Plain and La Posa Plain in Ajizona, east of the Colorado River. Sand transport along the paths appears to have been episodic, based on multiple paleosols present in several dissected sand ramps. Future testing of the sand transport path hypothesis will require additional sediment analyses, spectral studies of remote sensing data, and obtaining dates for selected soil horizons along the sand paths.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Habitat Use by Sonoran Desert Tortoises

The distribution of desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) spans a wide range of biotic and abiotic conditions in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, with physical and behavioral differences distinguishing tortoises inhabiting the Mojave Desert from those inhabiting the Sonoran Desert. Relative to tortoise populations in the Mojave Desert, populations in the Sonoran Desert ha...

متن کامل

Mineralogical maturity in dunefields of North America, Africa and Australia

Studies of dunefields in central and western North America show that mineralogical maturity can provide new insights into the origin and evolution of aeolian sand bodies. Many of the world’s great sand seas in Africa, Asia and Australia are quartzdominated and thus can be considered to be mineralogically mature. The Algodones (California) and Parker (Arizona) dunes in the southwestern United St...

متن کامل

Climate Change and Ecosystems of the Southwestern United States By Steven

Arid desert ecosystems of the western United States are particularly susceptible to climate change and climate variability. Plants and animals in this region live near their physiological limits for water and temperature stress. Slight changes in temperature or precipitation regimes or a change in the frequency and magnitude of extreme climatic events could therefore substantially alter the com...

متن کامل

Longevity and growth strategies of tiie desert tortoise {Gopherus agassizii) in two American deserts

The desert tortoise occurs in two strikingly different desert regimes in the southwestern United States. In the Mojave Desert, rainfall is more irregular and resources are more limited than in the Sonoran Desert. We examined the age structure of tortoise populations from these two deserts to determine whether the difference in resource availability has driven an evolutionary divergence in life ...

متن کامل

Asian fish tapeworm Bothriocephalus acheilognathi in the desert southwestern United States.

The Asian fish tapeworm Bothriocephalus acheilognathi (Cestoda: Bothriocephalidea) is an introduced fish parasite in the southwestern United States and is often considered a serious threat to native desert fishes. Determining the geographic distribution of nonnative fish parasites is important for recovery efforts of native fishes. We examined 1,140 individuals belonging to nine fish species fr...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2012