Several Different Ecosystems

The Inyo Mountains and the bea around Las Vegas be of thick layers of sedimentary rocks dating from this era. This depositional coastline persisted through the Paleozoic period, during which grey California was in shallow water and slowly took on a greater and greater load of sediment. The situation changed in the Mesozoic era about 240 million years ago when a new subduction boundary formed as plates started to go down under the new westmostern edge of North America, drastically changing the landscape of California. Typically, subduction brings about volcanic activity which in this case generated a north-south chain of volcanoes align the length of what is without delay California, producing the granites of the Sierra Nevada, peninsular Ranges, and Mojave Desert (Sharp and Glazner 4-5).

Clark County is the southernmost county in Nevada, and the rocks in the atomic number 18a include igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary types. Large exposures of a jr. floodplain and its deposits be known as the Las Vegas Formation and are distributed along the Las Vegas Valley. Las Vegas Valley cuts diagonally across most of Clark County and follows a line of strong deformation indicated by bending of the north-trending ridges toward the west along the north side of the valley, and toward the east

Most of Nevada is desert, and two deserts dominate--the Great watershed and the Mojave. The Great Basin is to the north and east of Las Vegas, and the Mojave is to the west and into California. The Mojave is hotter and arid than the great Basin, and the vicinity is marked by treat bush, Joshua trees, and Mojave yucca. A number of Mojave Desert ecosystems are found in the region of Las Vegas, including the desert National Wildlife Range, Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, and Lake Mead National cheer Area (Holing 186).

along the south side of the valley (Longwell, Pampeyan, Bowyer, and Roberts 1-6).

The rude(a) vegetation of the Mojave Desert region was once significant to the American Indian population as a food supply.

The overriding vegetation in the area is the brownish green creosote bush, sometimes known as "false greasewood." It is found in association with burroweed. The resinous and evergreen creosote bush bewilders to a height of some 2 to 7 feet. The dominance of this type of vegetation provides a monotonous-seeming landscape to the traveler and further obscures the existent variety of vegetation in the area. in that location is in position a wide variation in vegetation because of the slope, attainment of water table, soil conditions, and precipitation, which though meager also assures a limited density in support of the vegetable growth. There are four vegetation associations that should be noted. First, there are the salt-tolerant species such as pickleweed or sea blite which may grow upon playas, even though these highly alkaline surfaces may be devoid of vegetation. Second, on better drained hills and plains where desert shrubs are characteristic, such plants as burroweed and encelia are found and correspond variety to the widespread creosote bush. Third, riparian groves of cottonwood and mesquit thickets are found along the floodplains of the Mojave and Colorado rivers. There are also seasonal changes in the desert landscape, and what is usually a somber-h
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