The Coachella Valley is located in Southern California in Riverside county. It is part of the Sonoran desert, and is home to several cities. These cities include Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Coachella, Indio, La Quinta, Desert Hot Springs, and Cathedral City. If you ever find your way out here, you can go to the Coachella Valley History Museum in Indio to learn more about the history. It is also where Coachella and Stagecoach are held during the spring. The Salton Sea is in the valley, as well as whitewater preserve.
The landforms of the Coachella Valley include the Santa Rosa, San Jacinto, San Gorgonio, and the Chocolate mountains border the area. The majority of the region can be characterized as an alluvial fan.
An Alluvial Fan is sort of a triangle shaped load of sand and minerals that moves throughout other areas nearby the fan. An Alluvial Fan is usually at the bottom of a canyon or mountain, it is where a deposit of different soils is deposited near a stream or river. Sand from the Whitewater Preserve acts as an Alluvial Fan for the Coachella Valley and brings the loose and fine sand all over the region. There is also an Alluvial Fan near the Tramway in the Coachella Valley. What happens to make this loose sand is a lot of erosion and breaking apart because of wind and water. This makes mountains become boulders and boulders become gravel and gravel become fine sand.
In the Coachella Valley, there are palm oases along the San Andreas fault. The palm trees grow there because of the water that percolates from the opening created by the plates separating creating the fault zone. These palm oases have their own ecosystems and wildlife. The palm trees create shaded areas which help reduce the temperatures over the ponds. There are fish, frogs, insects, and lizards that inhabit these palm oases. The local newspaper, The Desert Sun, has created a virtual tour for you to enjoy.