| Reserva de la Biosfera El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar |
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IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape)
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Crater Elegante with the Pinacate peaks |
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| Location | Sonora, Mexico |
| Nearest city | Puerto Peñasco Plutarco Elías Calles San Luis Río Colorado |
| Coordinates | [1] |
| Area | 7,146 km2 (2,759 sq mi) |
| Established | June 10, 1993 |
| Governing body | Instituto Nacional de Ecología and Tohono O'odham |
| Official website | |
El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve (Spanish: Reserva de la Biosfera El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar), is a biosphere reserve managed by the Federal government of Mexico, specifically by Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources, in collaboration with state government of Sonora and the Tohono O'odham. It is in the Sonoran Desert in Northwest Mexico, east of Gulf of California, in the eastern part Gran Desierto de Altar, just below the border of Arizona, United States and north of the city of Puerto Peñasco. It is one of the most significant visible landforms in North America seen from space. A volcanic system, known as Santa Clara is the main part of the landscape, including three peaks; Pinacate, Carnegie and Medio. In the area there are over 540 species of plants, 40 species of mammals, 200 of birds, 40 of reptiles, also amphibians and freshwater fishes.[2] There are threatened endemic species as sonoran pronghorn, bighorn sheep, gila monster and desert tortoise.[3]
The extension of the Biosphere Reserve is 7,146 km²,[4] greater than that of the states of Aguascalientes, Colima, Morelos and Tlaxcala separated.[5]
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El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar is known for its unique physical and biological characteristics, by the presence of a volcano shield, and by the extensive areas of active dunes that surround it and the greatest concentration of Maar craters. The Pinacate mountain range has orogenic features of high interest for its abruptly conformation, product of volcanic eruptions, that accumulated lava in compact rocks, sand and volcanic ashes that formed colors of special beauty and craters as El Elegante, Cerro Colorado, MacDougal y Sykes.[6]
Picos del Pinacate (Pinacate Peaks) are a group of volcanic peaks and volcanic cinder cones, are located north of the recreation center of Puerto Peñasco. The highest peaks are Cerro del Pinacate (also called Santa Clara volcano), with an elevation of 3,904 feet (1,190 m). Pinacate comes from náhuatl pinacatl, desert endemic beetle.
The volcanoes have erupted sporadically for about 4 million years. The most recent activity was about 11 000 years. From 1965 to 1970, NASA sent astronauts there to train for future lunar excursions given the similarities of the land with the lunar surface.
The first inhabitants are known as San Dieguito people, they were hunter-gatherer who lived off the land, moving from the mountains to the sea of Gulf of California looking for food. The early stages of occupation seem to have ended at the beginning of ice age about 20 thousand years ago, when drought forced people to leave the mountain range.[7]
A second stage of occupation by San Dieguito people began in the late glacial period. This group returned to the mountains and lived as their ancestors. Tinajas must have been a reliable source of water during this time. The second stage of occupation ended with the arrival of an antipyretic period 9000 years ago, which again forced the indigenous to leave the territory.[2]
The settlers of the Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar are the current Tohono O'odham (desert people) also known as Pápagos; descendants of Hohokam culture. They like San Dieguito people, roamed the mountains coming down to the sea for food and concentrating their camps near to tinajas. During these trips, they left traces of their presence, proof of this are the network of trails ranging from tinaja to tinaja, as well as stone tools and remains of pottery found around these water sources.
Tohono O'odham are related with the Hia C-ed O'odham (sand dune people) and the Akimel O’odham (river people) also known as Pima. These three groups lived in the desert regions of northern Sonora and southern Arizona. Los Akimel O’odham mainly lived along the Gila river in Arizona, while the Tohono O'odham and Hia C'ed O'odham occupied the region of El Pinacate in Sonora. Although these groups were separated when Mexico lost the territory of Alta California in the Mexican American war, still share the same origin, same language and especially the same God, I’toi, whose dwelling is the Pinacate Peaks.[2][8]
There are few records of those who were the first explorers in this area. Possibly the first white man to see the mountain now known as Sierra Pinacate was the explorer Melchior Díaz on 1540. Subsequently, on 1698 the priest Eusebio Kino, founder of Mission San Xavier del Bac in southern Tucson, Arizona, visited the site and return on several occasions, he and his group climbed to the top of El Pinacate, which named Santa Clara Hill.[2]
Before 1956, few scientists and explorers had been in El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar, the most famous, the group MacDougal, Hornaday and Sykes who explored the western part of the mountain on 1907.
