Cuatro Ciénegas is Spanish for "four marshes"; the name was chosen by the first settlers because of the natural springs in the vicinity that create extensive areas of wetland and lakes.

The settlement's original name was Nuestra Señora de los Dolores y Cuatro Ciénegas, which was later changed to Villa Venustiano Carranza, before finally settling on its current name.

NASA has stated that the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin could have strong links to discovering life on Mars, since the adaptability of bioforms in the region was unique in the world.

These are colonies of certain types of cyanobacteria, extinct in most of the world, linked to the origin of an oxygen rich atmosphere over 3 billion years ago.

The most famous natural attractions are: Poza Azul is a protected wetland, located 9 km (5.6 mi) from Cuatrociénegas seat.

The Sierra de la Campana, a mountain range with a huge crater called El hundido, is also a tourist attraction.

The site attracts many visitors who are immersed in the process of making wine and it offers guide tours around the Cuatro Ciénegas valley.

Some have blamed the possible drying out on changes in climate and others have ascribed it to the introduction of large scale agriculture in adjacent valleys over the past two decades.

Research by hydrogeologist Brad Wolaver at the University of Texas at Austin, now at Flinders University, also found evidence that the aquifer supplying the water that emerges at the surface of the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin extends far beyond the basin and thus is potentially impacted by agricultural water extraction in adjacent valleys.