The area is in the mountain-ringed Tularosa Basin valley area and comprises the southern part of a 275 square miles field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals.
The core regions of the central highlands contain many complex topographical features including ridges, peaks, plateaus, basins, valleys, and escarpments (Fig. 1).
It consists largely of broad, open-ended basins or valleys of gentle slope.
Basins and valleys, headquarters for large cattle ranches, are scattered through the Blue Mountains.
Interior sheltered mountain basins and valleys receive 40 to 70 inches (1,000 to 1,800 mm) annually.
The warm air acts like a lid and traps pollutants near the surface, especially in basins and valleys.
Mountain basins and valleys, from 2,000 to 4,000 feet (600 to 1,200 metres), have mean annual temperatures of 66 and 73 °F (19 and 23 °C).
The Central Highlands have a highly dissected terrain consisting of a unique arrangement of plateaus, ridges, escarpments, intermontane basins, and valleys.
Irrigation agriculture is practiced in the Upper Klamath Lake area, and hay is grown with irrigation in a number of other basins and valleys, but most of this region is used by range livestock.
The intermontane basins and valleys are similar to the north-central plateau but with colder winters, while the higher, exposed elevations receive heavy precipitation, much of it in the form of snow during winter.
He then resurveyed the soil profiles in dozens of sections across the basin's valley in the 1970s and again in the 1990s to look for changes.
