What are some physical features in the Chihuahuan Desert?

Answer 1

There are many types of landforms in the Chihuahuan Desert. By and large they differ significantly from the types of landforms we associate with more mesic environments.

Two characteristic landform assemblages are the "Basin and Range" terrain, and the "Mesa and Scarp" terrain. Basins are usually wide- ranging, flat areas that lie between mountain ranges. They are made of material that has eroded from the surrounding mountain ranges. Basins may contain playas, playettes, sand sheets and hardpans of various types. Rocky basins may be described as hamadas made of exposed bedrock or of various desert pavements, or they may be merely flat and rocky in which case they are called regs.

Ranges erode to form plateaus, mesas, buttes, and pinnacles. The flat tops of these mountains are created by differential weathering down to resistant caprocks and/or hardpans. The escarpments are surrounded by taluses and various piedmont slope(bajada) type landforms, including alluvial fansalong with their associated remnants, collars, ballenas, coppice dunes, and terraces. Sometimes inselbergs arise from the basin floor.

Water-generated landforms include drainage channels which are usually described according to their size using landform-words like canyons, ravines, gullies, washes, drainages, or wadis. Great ergs (large areas covered with mobile sand dunes) are less frequent, but do exist, and dunes have an encyclopedic range of landform descriptions.

No discussion of Chihuahuan Desert landforms would be complete without including badlands. These complicatedly eroded areas are usually made mostly of massive deposits of various types of soft argillic materials (clays) or calcic materials. Badlands are created by the rapid erosion of these very soft materials. Badlands made of argillic materials usually have little or no vegetation because rapid shrinking and swelling of these materials disrupts roots of seedlings and prevents their establishment.

This is actually only a short list of typical desert landforms found in the Chihuahuan. Most of these landforms are themselves made of other features, which are described by separate groups of technical terms. A thorough answer to this question could form the basis of a nice book!

Answer 2

The Chihuahuan Desert has a variety of landscapes:
Rolling rocky hills with yuccas and ocotillo and creosote bushes and cacti
Mountains
Plains with mesquite trees and areas of sand dunes
Playas - dried lake beds, some with salt deposits
Extinct volcanoes and lava flows
Maar volcano craters
Canyons, river valleys with stands of cottonwood trees

Answer 3

In the summer, the temperature can soar to over 100 degrees during the day. The rainy (monsoon) season starts in late June and runs through September bringing higher humidities and occasional afternoon thunderstorms. Winters are usually cool and dry but it can get quite cold for brief periods and snow is possible on rare occasions but it usually melts within hours. Spring months can bring windy, dusty days but pleasant temperatures.

Answer 4

The Chihuahuan Desert has plains, mountains, hills, mesas, extinct volcanoes, canyons, sand dunes, river valleys, old lava flows and many other features.