Despite the fact that many people associate the word "desert" with unbearable heat and golden sand, in this article we will surprise you and destroy these myths.
A desert is characterized as an area that receives very little rainfall throughout the year. The soils here are mostly barren, as animals and plants cannot thrive in such a dry climate.
Nevertheless, experts estimate that about one third of the Earth's surface is occupied by either arid or semi-arid areas. The classification of deserts is carried out depending on the amount of precipitation, the causes of desertification, the prevailing temperature there and geographic location. Those rare animals and plants living in deserts have specific structural features that help them survive in a hostile environment.
People have tried to occupy desert regions in the same way for many generations. Nomads are groups of people living in the desert, who mainly move with their herds of animals from region to region, depending on where the best conditions for grazing are located, as well as oases that provide the opportunity for a settled life in these deserts.
10. Great Basin Desert - 492,097.74 km2
The Great Basin Desert is the largest desert in the United States of America. It stretches for more than 492 thousand km.2... The desert is bordered by the Rocky Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevada to the west, and the Sonoran and Mojave deserts to the south, and the Colombian Highlands is bordered by the desert to the north.
It is a rather cold desert with an annual rainfall of 177-304 mm. The climate is characterized by extremely dry, hot summers and snowy, cold winters.
9.Syrian Desert - 517,997.62 km2
This desert is a combination of true desert and steppe. It is located in the north of the Arabian Peninsula, in the region of Syria. Takes about 518 thousand km2 from the total land area. The desert is flat, but very rocky.
The landscape is composed of lava flows from volcanic activity in the Jebel Druz region of Syria. The Syrian Desert covers parts of Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
8. Patagonian Desert - 517,997.62 km2
It is the largest desert in the South American part of Argentina, covering an area of about 518 thousand km2... It is primarily located in Argentina, although partly in Chile. The Patagonian Desert is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Andes to the west.
This is a cold and wintry desert - the temperature there rarely exceeds +12 degrees, and the average is generally only +3 degrees. The desert is relatively windy due to the descending mountain air currents and the effect of rain shadow.
7. Great Victoria Desert - 569,797.38 km2
The Great Victoria Desert is characterized by numerous sandy hills and is the largest desert in Australia, covering about 570 thousand km2... It stretches from the Gohler Mountains in southern Australia to the eastern goldfields in Western Australia. Thunderstorms are very common in this desert, on average there are about 15-20 of them a year.
In winter, the temperature drops to about +20? C, and in summer, the temperature ranges from +32 to +40 degrees. Rainfall is generally low and varies slightly from year to year, usually in the range of 200-250 mm per year.
6. Kalahari Desert - 932,395.72 km2
Large, semi-arid savanna in southern Africa. Kalahari covers an area of about 930 thousand km2... It covers parts of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. The desert has large areas of red sand that exist without surface water drainage.
Seasonal floods also occur here, and then the subsequent drainage of rivers (the reservoirs themselves or simply the channels dry up), dry valleys and salt depressions appear. The Okavango is the only river that constantly carries its waters to the delta in the northwest.
5. Gobi Desert - 1,294,994.06 km2
Located in Asia, it covers parts of northwestern and northern China and extends to the south of Mongolia. The area is about 1.3 million km2... The Gobi is called the "rainless desert" because it sits on the leeward side of the Himalayan ridges, which block rain (create a "rain shadow") by keeping the clouds coming from the Indian Ocean from reaching the Gobi.
Much of the desert surface is not sandy, but rather bare and bare as rock. It is a cold desert, and sometimes you can even see snow caps on the dunes here.
4. Arabian Desert - 2,330,989.3 km2
This desert is located in distant Western Asia and covers a large part of the Arabian Peninsula. With an area of about 2.3 million km2, it occupies the largest part of Yemen, the Persian Gulf, Oman, Jordan and Iraq. Its center, Rub al-Khali, is the largest continuous accumulation of sand.
The climate is very dry, and the temperature, on the one hand, is often very high, and on the other hand, during seasonal nighttime cold snaps, it becomes rather low. Annual rainfall averages around 100 mm, but the driest areas receive only 30-40 mm of rain per year.
3. Sahara - 9,064,958.39 km2
The third largest desert overall and the largest "hot desert" in the world. Its area is about 9 million. This desert includes most of the land of North Africa, with the exception of the fertile regions of the Maghreb, the Atlas Mountains and the coastal region adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea.
A large part of the desert consists of rocks and huge areas covered with sand dunes. The surface is constantly changing by winds and, much less often, by extremely low and rare rainfall.
The central part of the desert is called "hyper-arid", there is no vegetation, and all due to the fact that there is practically no precipitation. Most of the rivers are dry and seasonal. An exception is the Nile, which is the main river that flows through the desert.
2. Arctic - 13 985 935.8 km2
This desert occupies the entire North Pole. The Arctic Desert is the second largest desert in the world, with an area of about 14 million. The desert is partly owned or controlled by Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
Precipitation usually falls as snow, and winter temperatures can drop as low as -40 degrees. The climate is also characterized by strong winds that cause snow, giving the illusion of constant and incessant snowfall.
The Arctic is very vulnerable due to climate change. There has recently been a decrease in ice cover, which is of growing concern as it is a consequence of global warming, which could have a profound effect on weather conditions around the world.
1. Antarctica - 14,244,934.6 km2
Antarctica is considered the most extreme continent on Earth and is located near the South Pole. It is the driest, windiest and coldest continent, and also the most elevated in comparison with others. All of Antarctica is a desert with an annual rainfall of less than 200 mm.
Temperatures are usually very low and can drop to -89 degrees in winter and as low as -15 degrees in summer (but even then this happens sometimes in some coastal areas). For this reason, there are no permanent residents. The temporary residents who come there during the year range from 1,000 to 5,000, and they consist mainly of scientific researchers and their assistants.
The Antarctic Desert covers an area of about 14 million. Moreover, because of the very strong reflection of sunlight from ice, people in Antarctica are worried about sunburn and vision problems.
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