Shuk Toak. Historia natural y cultural de un geosímbolo de Sonora

Abstract

In the northwestern corner of Sonora, México, there is an arid region covered by a volcanic shield that is close to both a complex of sand dunes and the Sea of Cortez. Here, temperatures can reach 56.7 °C in the summer and -8.3 °C during the winter. With only 52 millimeters of annual rain, one could assume that this is a lifeless wasteland. On the contrary, the Altar Desert and the El Pinacate volcanic shield have been characterized, since the Pleistocene Era, by the existence of a rich biodiversity of hundreds of species of fauna and flora which have adapted to current conditions.Therefore, the Mexican government declared it, in 1993, a protected natural area and named it El Pinacate BiosphereReserve andGreat DesertofAltar.Thisregionhas been historically relevant not only because of its physiographic and environmental singularities, but also because it has been inhabited by human beings since the Paleoindian and Late Prehistoric periods, and has repeatedly been explored since the 17th Century by missionaries, colonizers, gold seekers, hunters, and, most of all, scientists. This article presents both its natural and cultural histories, and discusses the geological, morphological and physiographic aspects of this reserve, its biodiversity, as well as its early settlement and subsequent exploration. This is the result of a research project aimed at developing a museum script which can become a permanent exhibition housed by the Shuk Toak Visitor Center.