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Chihuahuan Desert

The 13th largest desert in the world

362,600km²

The Chihuahuan Desert (Spanish: Desierto de Chihuahua, Desierto Chihuahuense) is a desert ecoregion designation covering parts of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It occupies much of Far West Texas, the middle to lower Rio Grande Valley and the lower Pecos Valley in New Mexico, and a portion of southeastern Arizona, as well as the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau. It is bordered on the west by the Sonoran Desert, the Colorado Plateau, and the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, along with the northwestern lowlands of the Sierra Madre Oriental range. Its largest, continual expanse is located in Mexico, covering a large portion of the state of Chihuahua, along with portions of Coahuila, north-eastern Durango, the extreme northern part of Zacatecas, and small western portions of Nuevo León. With an area of about 501,896 km2 (193,783 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in North America. The desert is fairly young, existing for only 8,000 years.

Location: Mexico, United States.

Desert data from Wikidata (CC0).

Other major deserts

  1. Sahara9,200,000 km²
  2. Gobi Desert2,354,460 km²
  3. Arabian Desert2,330,000 km²
  4. Libyan Desert1,100,000 km²
  5. Kalahari Desert930,000 km²
  6. Rub' al Khali680,000 km²
  7. Kazakh semi-desert678,871 km²
  8. Central Asian northern desert663,900 km²