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InsightHorizon Digest

What is the largest desert in North America

Author

Isabella Turner

Updated on April 08, 2026

The roughly 200,000-square-mile Chihuahuan Desert — larger than the state of California — stretches across six Mexican states and parts of Texas and New Mexico. It is the largest desert in North America and is located between two of Mexico’s largest mountain ranges called the eastern and western Sierra Madre.

What's the largest desert in North America?

The Great Basin Desert is the largest desert area of North America. It is also the most northerly, covering most of Nevada (Ne), the western third of Utah (U) and parts of Idaho (Id) and Oregon (Or).

What is the world's largest desert?

Antarctica. Antarctica is the world’s largest desert. (Image credit: NASA.)

Where are the deserts in North America?

The continent’s major deserts are associated with the intermontane Basin and Range Province of the western United States, northern Mexico, and the Colorado Plateau region of northern Arizona, southwestern Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah.

What state has the most desert?

The Great Basin Desert is largest in area, covering southeast Oregon, a small portion of northeast California, most of west Utah, part of southeast Idaho, and the majority of Nevada – all except the southernmost 150 miles which are within the Mojave Desert, and some northern mountain ranges bordering Idaho.

How many deserts are there in North America?

The North American Deserts North America has four major deserts: Great Basin, Mohave, Chihuahuan and Sonoran. All but the Sonoran Desert have cold winters.

What desert is furthest north?

The Mojave Desert is the northernmost “hot desert” in North America and essentially a transition land between the Great Basin and Sonoran.

What is the name of the largest desert that runs across North Africa?

The Sahara is the worlds largest hot desert, covering 8.5 million square kilometers (3.3 million square miles), about the size of the South American country of Brazil. Defining Africa’s northern bulge, the Sahara makes up 25 percent of the continent.

Where is the high desert in the USA?

High Desert is an informal designation, with non-discrete boundaries, applied to areas of the Mojave Desert in southern California that are generally between 2,000 feet (610 m) and 4,000 feet (1,200 m) in elevation, and located just north of the San Gabriel, San Bernardino and Little San Bernardino Mountains.

Which is largest hot desert?

Sahara, the largest hot desert, expanded by 10 per cent in the 20th century.

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Where are the 5 largest deserts in the world?

  • Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert is the second largest desert in Asia and the fifth largest single desert in the world. …
  • Arabian Desert. The Arabian Desert is the largest desert in Asia and the fourth largest in the world. …
  • Sahara Desert. …
  • Arctic Polar Desert. …
  • Antarctic Polar Desert.

What is the 6th largest desert?

6. Patagonian Desert is the 6th Largest Desert in the World – 260,000 square miles. The largest desert in Argentina, the Patagonian Desert, or Magellanic Steppe, is a cold, winter desert where it rarely rains and the average temperature is just 3°C.

Which US state doesn't have a desert?

RankYearWinter1NevadaNorth Dakota2UtahSouth Dakota3WyomingNebraska4ArizonaWyoming

What is the world's oldest desert?

The world’s oldest desert, the Namib Desert has existed for at least 55 million years, completely devoid of surface water but bisected by several dry riverbeds.

What type of desert is Las Vegas?

Las Vegas is situated within Clark County, in a basin on the floor of the Mojave Desert, and is surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides.

Which is bigger Gobi or Sahara?

Rank5DesertGobiArea in million sq. mi0.5Area in million sq. km1.3TypeCold winter

Where is Gobi Desert?

The Gobi Desert basin lies across southern Mongolia and northwestern China between the Mongolian Altai and Khangai mountains and the Himalayan Plateau (see map in Fig. 1). This region is a cold desert with a continental climate and long, cold winters.

Is Gobi largest desert?

The Gobi Desert is the largest desert in Asia, spanning over 1,600 km (1,000 miles) over China and Mongolia, and the 5th largest desert in the world.

What is the driest desert in North America?

Mojave Desert The landscape of the Mojave Desert. The Mojave Desert stretches across Nevada, Arizona, and California, covering 47,877 square miles. It receives under 2 inches of precipitation every year, which makes this desert the driest in North America.

Is Death Valley in Mojave Desert?

The fascinating desert valley is situated on the eastern border of south-central California, in the northern Mojave Desert, and borders the Great Basin Desert. The area of Death Valley National covers 5,270 square miles (3.4 million acres), stretching into Nevada, and is the largest national park in the Lower 48.

How big is the desert in Arizona?

The Sonoran Desert as currently defined covers approximately 100,000 square miles (260,000 sq. km.) and includes most of the southern half of Arizona, southeastern California, most of the Baja California peninsula, the islands of the Gulf of California, and much of the state of Sonora, Mexico.

Is Texas a desert?

who have never been to Texas, the state is a vast desert. It is not the Sahara, but instead, a high-plains arid region studded with rocky mesas, sweeping wall-like cliffs, dusty canyons, and sometimes adorned with thousands of Saguaro cacti – native to Arizona, not Texas.

Where is the Sahara desert?

The Sahara is the world’s largest desert; it extends across most of the northern part of Africa.

Is Colorado a high desert?

Experience all Four Seasons in Colorado The Denver metro area is known for its semi-arid, high-desert climate — though the weather is heavily influenced by the proximity of the Rocky Mountains and Front Range.

Does the Mojave tribe still exist?

Mojave, also spelled Mohave, Yuman-speaking North American Indian farmers of the Mojave Desert who traditionally resided along the lower Colorado River in what are now the U.S. states of Arizona and California and in Mexico.

Is the Grand Canyon in the Mojave Desert?

The majority of the park is the Sonoran Desert. … The Upper Sonoran Life Zone includes most of the inner canyon, reaching 7,000 feet up the canyon. Part of Grand Canyon National Park is considered the Mojave Desert, which supports countless desert plants such as cacti, the desert lily, Mojave sage, and prairie clover.

Is Nevada the most desert?

Nevada is the driest state in the United States. It is made up of mostly desert and semi-arid climate regions, and, with the exception of the Las Vegas Valley, the average summer diurnal temperature range approaches 40 °F (22 °C) in much of the state.

Which desert is the hottest desert in the world?

Seven years of satellite temperature data show that the Lut Desert in Iran is the hottest spot on Earth. The Lut Desert was hottest during 5 of the 7 years, and had the highest temperature overall: 70.7°C (159.3°F) in 2005.

What does Sahara mean in English?

Sahara. Expresses the Arabic for “desert.”

Which is the largest cold desert?

Desert (Type)Surface area in million square milesAntarctic (polar)5.5Arctic (polar)5.4

Where is the largest sand desert in the world?

The Ar Rub’ al Khali, or Empty Quarter, covers much of the south-central portion of the Arabian Peninsula and is the largest continuous sand desert on Earth.