CEDO is located in western North America on the Gulf of California (red box). It is about a six our drive from Tucson (yellow dot). The red dot on the right is New York and on the left, Berkeley. (Image courtesy of NASA).

GULF OF CALIFORNIA

On the left is a false color, infra red satellite image of the Gulf of California. The dark reds are areas with active photosynthesis, the black areas are bare rock or water and the white areas are desert. The peninsula on the left is Baja California, the land to the right is the Mexican state of Sonora, and the water body between them is the Gulf of California. The yellow arrow indicates north. Above is a close up of the region we will be examining. Puerto Penasco is just to the upper right of the second p in pp. CEDO is located just of the c. The large black circular object (pi) is the Pinacate volcanic complex, an active volcano, gd, is the Gran Desierto (all white), and e is the Estero Morua. The white box is the area of the detail below.

Aerial photograph of the region we will visit in the eastern part of the Gran Desierto. The large sand dunes are clearly visible to the west of the light colored granite mountain (Sierra Blanca) and to the south of the Pinacate Volcano.