Sechura Desert

File:PeruvianDesert00.jpg

An inland portion of the Peruvian desert.

The Sechura Desert is located south of the Piura Region of Peru along the Pacific Ocean coast and inland to the foothills of the Andes Mountains. It is north of the Atacama Desert.

Location and extent

Within Peru, the desert is described as the strip along the northern Pacific coast of Peru in the southern Piura and western Lambayeque regions, and extending from the coast 20–100 km inland to the secondary ridges of the Andes Mountains. At its northern end near the city of Piura, the Sechura Desert transitions to the Tumbes-Piura tropical-dry forests ecoregion. Comprising much of eastern Lambayeque Region, this habitat is composed of equatorial dry forests. The total area of the Sechura Desert is 188,735 km².

The international World Wildlife Fund (WWF) defines the Sechura Desert as the entire stretch of coastal desert from the northwestern tip of Peru to parts of northern Chile, where it meets the Atacama Desert. In a third definition, the National Geographic Society includes part of the coastal desert in southern Peru (near Ica, Peru|Ica) within the Atacama Desert (See graphic map at Atacama Desert.)

For the purposes of this article, the entire arid region of the coast of Peru, as defined by the WWF, shall be hereby referenced as the Sechura Desert.

History

While a desert, the Sechura has been subject to flooding from rivers and to storms driven in from the Pacific Ocean. In 1728 a tsunami generated from an earthquake swept inland, destroying the town of Sechura, then located closer to the water. Survivors moved inland and re-established the town in its current location.

During El Niño years, flooding in the desert regularly occurs. In 1998 the runoff from the flooding rivers poured into the coastal Sechura Desert. Where there had been nothing but arid, hardscrabble waste for 15 years, suddenly, the second-largest lake in Peru had developed: 90 miles (145 kilometers) long, 20 miles (30 kilometers) wide, and ten feet (three meters) deep, with occasional parched domes of sand and clay poking up from the surface.

Climate

The Peruvian Desert has a low range of temperature changes due to the moderating effect of the nearby Pacific Ocean. Because of the upwelling of cold coastal waters and because of subtropical atmospheric subsidence, the desert is one of the most arid on Earth.^[1]

Summer (December through March) is warm and sunny with temperatures that average over 24 °C, with ranges from 25º to 38º. The Winter (June through September) is cool and cloudy with temperatures that vary from 16°C during the night to 24°C during the day.

Geography

The numerous short rivers that cross the Sechura supported prehistoric indigenous human settlements for millennia. A number of urban cultures flourished here, including the Moche. The Moche thrived on fish, guinea pigs, squash and peanuts. The Sican Culture (c. 800-1300 CE) succeeded the Moche, and developed refined techniques of lost wax goldsmithing.

Today the rivers support intensive irrigated agriculture on the fertile bottomlands. Two of Peru's five largest cities, including Piura and Chiclayo, lie within the agricultural region in the North.

See also

• List of deserts
• Nazca Lines
• Atacama Desert
• Chala

References

1. ^ Cooke, Ronald U.; Warren, Andrew; Goudie, Andrew. Desert Geomorphology, 1992, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 1857280172

External links

• Sechura desert (World Wildlife Fund)

Coordinates: 7°45′55.52″S 78°43′40.9″W / 7.7654222°S 78.728028°W / -7.7654222; -78.728028