Editing Basin and Range Province (section)

==Geography==
[[File:Basin range province.jpg|thumb|NASA satellite photo of typical Basin and Range topography across central Nevada]]

The Basin and Range Province includes much of western [[North America]]. In the United States, it is bordered on the west by the eastern [[fault scarp]] of the [[Sierra Nevada]] and spans over {{convert|500|mi|km}} to its eastern border marked by the [[Wasatch Fault]], the [[Colorado Plateau]] and the [[Rio Grande Rift]]. The province extends north to the [[Columbia Plateau]] and south as far as the [[Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt]] in [[Mexico]], though the southern boundaries of the Basin and Range are debated.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Henry|first1=C|last2=Aranda-Gomez|first2=J|year=1992|title=The real southern Basin and Range: Mid- to late Cenozoic extension in Mexico|journal=Geology|volume=20|issue=8|pages=20701–04|bibcode=1992Geo....20..701H|doi=10.1130/0091-7613(1992)020<0701:TRSBAR>2.3.CO;2}}</ref> In Mexico, the Basin and Range Province is dominated by and largely synonymous with the [[Mexican Plateau]].

Evidence suggests that the less-recognized southern portion of the province is bounded on the east by the [[Laramide orogeny|Laramide]] Thrust Front of the [[Sierra Madre Oriental]] and on the west by the [[Gulf of California]] and [[Baja Peninsula]] with notably less faulting apparent in the [[Sierra Madre Occidental]] in the center of the southernmost Basin and Range Province.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Dickinson|first=William R.|author-link=William R. Dickinson |title=The Basin and Range Province as a Composite Extensional Domain|journal=[[International Geology Review]] |volume=22|issue=1 |year=2002|pages=1–38|doi=10.2747/0020-6814.44.1.1|bibcode=2002IGRv...44....1D|s2cid=73617479 }}</ref>

Common geographic features include numerous [[endorheic basins]], ephemeral lakes, plateaus, and [[bolson]] valleys alternating with mountains (as described below). The area is mostly arid and sparsely populated, although there are several major metropolitan areas, such as [[Reno, Nevada|Reno]], [[Las Vegas]], [[Salt Lake City]], [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]], [[Tucson, Arizona|Tucson]], [[El Paso]]—[[Ciudad Juárez]], [[Mexicali]], and [[Hermosillo]].