"Pinacate Biosphere Reserve"
Something Unique about the Desert:
Pinacate Desert
- The Pinacate Desert is a hostile landscape.
- Scattered along the dark landscape are lime-green cholla cacti, which serve to illuminate the desert with their bright colors and give the Pinacate its distinct surreal character.
- The much taller senita and saguaro cactus are also present here, and tower over the landscape like desert sentinels.
- In February and March, the desolation turns into a kaleidoscope of colors as the wildflowers bloom.
- This black, barren desert is a seemingly endless stretch of heat and inhospitality.
- There is virtually no surface water, little rain, and temperatures can approach 120º F.
- In recent millennia, more than 400 volcanoes erupted here, spewing forth black pumice, rock, sand, ash, and creating giant lava tubes.
Gran Desierto de Altar
Pinacate Beetle
- The southernmost section of the reserve is known as the Gran Desierto de Altar.
- The unique peach-beige colored sand dunes here stand in stark contrast to the black Pinacate.
- The region is named after a native insect, the Pinacate Beetle (Stink Beetle)
- This desert stinkbug is famous for raising its rear end high in the air when threatened and emitting a foul odor.
http://www.desertmuseum.org/images/98pin10.jpg
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1401-001&volpage=photos
Pinacate Biosphere Reserve
Volcan Santa Clara
Connection with Gulf of California
What is it?
- Volcan Santa Clara, a shield volcano, is the main feature in this area-formed by repeated eruptions over the millennia.
- Several fairly young cinder cones sit atop Volcan Santa Clara-they were created by smaller eruptions that occurred long after the mountain was formed.
- The highest of these cones is Pinacate Peak, with nearby Carnegie Peak a close second.
- It's thought that the eruption of the volcanoes here are probably in association with the opening of the Gulf of California.
- The most recent volcanic activity was about 11,000 years ago.
- This reserve is located in the state of Sonora, Mexico. (US/Mexican Border)
- Covers more than 600 square miles of a unique desert landscape that includes volcanic cones, lava formations, and Sonoran desert plants.
- The region is named after a native insect, the Pinacate Beetle.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=4552
Cerro Pinacate
Elephant Tree, Bursera microphylla
- The tallest of the peaks is Cerro del Pinacate (also called Volcan Santa Clara), elevation 3,904 feet (1,190 m).
- The volcanoes here have erupted here sporadically since about 4 million years ago.
http://www.eoearth.org/images/144920/500x0/scale/pinnactepeakswdunesPuerto_Penasco1290696958.jpg
- This species is rare.
- The physique of this tree is like multiple elephant trunks, waving and contorted, with smooth but flaking whitish bark in mature individuals.
- This Species is old it was recorded to be on earth as early as about 8000 years before present in the early Holocene post-glacial.
http://www.summitpost.org/cerro-pinacate/155033
http://www.globaltwitcher.com/artspec_information.asp?thingid=90792
http://rainforestdatabase.com/plants/PlantImages/Bursera_microphylla_2jpg.jpg
by:
Lupe Ramos & Carina Palafox