Spring Mountains

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Spring Mountains
Mt. Charleston

Mt. Charleston

Highest peak Mount Charleston (Charleston Peak) ( 3632  m )
location Nevada (USA)
Spring Mountains (USA)
Spring Mountains
Coordinates 36 ° 18 ′  N , 115 ° 40 ′  W Coordinates: 36 ° 18 ′  N , 115 ° 40 ′  W
particularities isolated mountain range in the Mojave Desert
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The Spring Mountains are an isolated mountain range in northern Mojave Desert in Clark County in southern Nevada in the United States . It is a so-called Sky Island system that rises directly from the lowlands and contains more than 10 peaks at heights of more than 3300 meters, the highest peak is Mount Charleston with a height of 3632 meters. Other peaks are Bonanza Peak , McFarland Peak , Mummy Mountain , Griffith Peak , Bridge Mountain , Mount Wilson and Mount Potosi .

Most of the Spring Mountains are owned by the United States Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management and are administered as the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area on the east side of the mountain range .

Location, climate and vegetation

The chain is located in a northwest direction in the northwest of the city of Las Vegas and is about 110 kilometers long and about 45 kilometers wide. It is completely surrounded by the desert at an altitude of about 700 meters and accordingly isolated from other mountain ranges in western North America such as the Sierra Nevada to the west . It is characterized by steep rock faces and high limestone cliffs. The climate is dry (arid) to semi-arid and is influenced by the rain shadow formed by the mountain ranges to the west. The annual rainfall averages less than 13 centimeters in the lower areas and 71 centimeters in the high areas on the east side, where the largest proportion of rain and snow occurs each year. The high altitudes are also covered with snow for 5 to 7 months, the annual average temperature is around 10 ° C at an altitude of 2000 meters.

The vegetation of the lower areas consists of desert and semi-desert bushes, dominated by blackbrush ( Coleogyne ramosissima ). This is followed by low coniferous forests of single-leaved pine ( Pinus monophylla ), Utah juniper ( Juniperis osteosperma ), sagebrush ( Artemisia tridentata ) and Cercocarpus ledifolius . At higher altitudes up to the tree line, yellow pines ( Pinus ponderosa ), Colorado firs ( Abies concolor ), flexible pines ( Pinus flexilis ) and long-lived pines ( Pinus longaeva ) form the main vegetation, while Ivesia cryptocaulis is the dominant plant species in the high altitude alpine zones is. Rosa woodsii and Cercocarpus intricatus grow on the rocky slopes.

supporting documents

  1. a b c d Christopher Lowrey, Kathleen Longshore: Palmer's Chipmunk (Tamias palmeri). Ecology and Monitoring Protocols in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, Nevada. Study for the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, United States Geological Survey 2005 (Draft); Pp. 4-5; Retrieved October 18, 2016.

Web links

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