Isla Montague
| Isla Montague | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Waters | Gulf of California | |
| Geographical location | 31 ° 44 ′ N , 114 ° 44 ′ W | |
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| length | 32 km | |
| surface | 132.8 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
The Isla Montague is an island off the mouth of the Colorado River into the Gulf of Baja California in the Mexican municipality of Mexicali .
The island is a maximum of 32 km long in north-south direction and is part of the Colorado Delta . There is one of the highest tidal ranges in the world with up to 10 m , so that the island disappears completely at high tide . Its maximum extent at low tide is 132.8 km². Although the islands in the delta have changed a lot over time, Montague can already be seen on a map from 1873.
To the east of Montague are the smaller islands of Gore and Pelícano.
ecology
The climate in the region is extremely hot and arid , the average annual rainfall is 60 mm. The Isla Montague has changed its shape and ecology significantly due to the conditions in the delta. The only water that reaches the delta is agricultural sewage.
Seven species of waterfowl breed on Isla Montague. The island is one of two known breeding areas for the Ornamental Tern ( Sterna elegans ) in Mexico. Over the course of two years, large numbers of nests were lost to flooding, but few were lost to predators . The breeding birds on Isla Montague reacted strongly to El Niño , with brown booby by blue-footed boobies were replaced, and the number of some terns like the scissors beaks ( Rynchops ) increased.
Isla Montague is one of the few places where the endangered Colorado Delta mussel ( Mulinia coloradoensis ) can be found. This species was once abundant at the mouth of the Colorado River, now it only exists in a few isolated places. This decline is explained by the increasing salinity of the water by the Colorado.
Natural resources
In 1981, the Mexican state oil company PEMEX discovered natural gas in the area. This led to a scramble for oil and gas concessions in the nearby city of Yuma, Arizona . The area was also examined for its usefulness for a tidal power plant.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b http://fire.biol.wwu.edu/trent/alles/TheDelta.pdf , David L. Alles, ed., "The Delta of the Colorado River," Western Washington University, August 6, 2006.
- ↑ David A. Alles, ed., "Geology of the Salton Trough", Western Washington University, May 28, 2005 ( Memento of the original from June 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.8 MB)
- ^ Eduardo Palacios, Eric Mellink, "Additional Records of Breeding Birds from Montague Island, Northern Gulf of California", Centro de Investigaci6n Cientifica y Educacion Superior de Ensenada, BC, Apartado Postal 2732, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. (PDF; 75 kB)
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. E. Peresbarbosa, E. Mellink, "Nesting Waterbirds of Isla Montague, Northern Gulf of California, Mexico: Loss of Eggs due to Predation and Flooding, 1993-1994", Waterbirds , Vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 265-271. August 2001.
- ↑ [1] ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Antonio Badan, "The effects of El Niño in Mexico: A survey," Geofisica Internacional , Vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 567-571 (2003).
- ↑ Carlie A. Rodriguez, Karl W. Flessa, David Le Dettman, "Effects of Upstream Diversion of Colorado River Water on the Estuarine Bivalve Mollusc Mulinia coloradoensis," Conservation Biology , Vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 249-258, February 2001.
- ↑ "Find prompts scramble", The Courier , Vol. 90, No. 152, Aug. 4, 1981.
- ↑ S. Sheth, M. Shahidehpour, "Tidal energy in electric power systems," Power Engineering Society General Meeting, 2005. IEEE, June 2005
