The 10 Great Desert destinations in the World

“Desert” alludes to a fruitless or parched district portrayed by an absence of critical vegetation and practically no precipitation. Deserts cover around 33% of the World’s property surface and are tracked down across different landmasses. The essential characterizing element of deserts is their outrageous dryness. They get insignificant precipitation over time, frequently under 250 mm (10 inches) yearly. This low precipitation thwarts the development of vegetation, making it challenging for plants and creatures to get by. Deserts experience sensational temperature vacillations among constantly because of their low dampness content. During the day, the temperature can be searing, and around evening time, it can drop essentially. This distinction in temperature is known as diurnal temperature variety. Vegetation in deserts is adjusted to get by in cruel circumstances. You will ordinarily track down succulents, desert flora, and dry season safe bushes that can store water and endure extensive stretches of dry spell.
A few deserts are portrayed by tremendous stretches of sand rises, framed by wind-blown sand. These rises can be gigantic and make hypnotizing scenes. Human exercises, like deforestation, overgrazing, and poor farming practices, can prompt desertification. This cycle transforms once prolific regions into dry, ineffective terrains, further adding to the development of existing deserts. Regardless of the brutal circumstances, deserts are home to special and strong untamed life. Numerous creatures have adjusted to make due in these outrageous conditions by having water-saving components and nighttime propensities. Deserts assume a vital part in the worldwide biological system, impacting weather conditions, going about as normal living spaces for specific plants and creatures, and facilitating critical topographical developments. Be that as it may, they are sensitive biological systems powerless against human effects, and legitimate preservation measures are crucial for safeguard their environmental equilibrium. Here is the rundown of top 10 Abandons on the planet.

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1.Namib Desert

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The Namib Desert is a tremendous and parched district situated in southwestern Africa, essentially in Namibia, yet additionally stretching out into parts of Angola and South Africa. It is one of the most established and driest deserts on the planet, with a set of experiences that goes back more than 55 million years. Here are a few critical insights regarding the Namib Desert: The Namib Desert covers an area of roughly 81,000 square kilometers (31,000 square miles). It extends along the whole western bank of Namibia, from the line with Angola in the north to the boundary with South Africa in the south. The Namib Desert is portrayed by an incredibly dry and brutal environment. Precipitation is negligible and sporadic, for certain areas getting just 2 millimeters (0.08 inches) of downpour each year. Temperatures can vary fundamentally, with searing hot days and crisp evenings. The desert scene is assorted and charming, highlighting huge sand rises, immense rock fields, rough outcrops, and tough mountains. The notable red-orange sand rises of Sosos’ve are one of the most notable elements of the Namib Desert. In spite of its outrageous circumstances, the Namib Desert is home to an amazing cluster of adjusted plant and creature species. A portion of the particular verdure found here incorporate the welwitschia plant, desert-adjusted elephants, oryx, springbok, and the Namib Desert bug, which has developed to gather water from the morning haze on its back. The Namib Desert draws in an extensive number of travelers every year who come to observe its stunning scenes, extraordinary untamed life, and experience the quietness of its huge fields. Supportable the travel industry rehearses are crucial for save the sensitive environment of the desert. The Namib Desert is an enrapturing and powerful location, offering a brief look into the flexibility of life in outrageous conditions and displaying the magnificence of the regular world. Its delicate environment and novel highlights make it a locale of worldwide significance for preservation endeavors.

2.Atacama Desert

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The Atacama Desert is an immense and exceptional topographical component situated in South America, fundamentally covering northern Chile and stretching out into parts of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. It is much of the time viewed as the driest desert on the planet, making it an outstanding and testing climate with particular attributes. The Atacama Desert traverses roughly 105,000 square kilometers (40,000 square miles), making it quite possibly of the biggest desert on The planet. The desert’s most remarkable element is its outrageous aridity. A few region of the Atacama have not encountered any critical precipitation for quite a long time. The dryness is credited to the Andes mountain range hindering dampness loaded mists from arriving at the area. Moreover, the chilly Humboldt Current seaward represses the arrangement of mists and precipitation. The Atacama Desert is portrayed by a different scope of scenes, including immense salt pads, sand rises, rough levels, and infertile valleys. The western piece of the desert is lined by the Pacific Sea. In spite of the brutal circumstances, the Atacama Desert has an assortment of extraordinary greenery adjusted to the super dry climate. A portion of the striking plant species incorporate the Tamarugo tree, which can arrive at profound water sources, and the blooming desert plants like the Atacama Goliath, a huge geoglyph of a human figure carved into the desert floor.
The desert upholds a restricted scope of creature life, yet a few solid animal categories have adjusted to get by in this dry climate. Models incorporate the Chilean flamingo, vicuña, guanaco, and different reptiles and bugs. Because of the low moistness and insignificant light contamination, the Atacama Desert has turned into a head area for cosmic perceptions. A few elite observatories are situated in the district, exploiting the unmistakable skies and high-elevation areas. The Atacama Desert has turned into a famous traveler objective lately. Guests are attracted to its remarkable scenes, the extraordinary feel of its landscape, and the chance to investigate its normal marvels and geoglyphs.

3.Sahara Desert

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The Sahara Desert is the biggest hot desert on the planet, extending across North Africa from the Red Ocean to the Atlantic Sea. It covers an area of around 9.2 million square kilometers (3.6 million square miles), making it generally the size of the US or China. The desert traverses a few nations, including Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan, and Tunisia. The Sahara Desert is portrayed by huge stretches of sand ridges, rough levels, and rock fields. It is flanked by the Map book Mountains toward the north and the Sahel savanna toward the south. The scene is different, with sand rises known as ergs, stone levels known as hammadas, and huge stony fields called regs. The Sahara encounters an outrageous environment with singing temperatures during the day and sharp decreases in temperature around evening time. Summer temperatures can take off over 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) while winters can be shockingly cool, particularly in the desert’s northern areas. The typical yearly precipitation in the Sahara is extremely low, going from basically none in certain region to a couple of centimeters in others. Precipitation is commonly inconsistent and erratic, and dry seasons can continue for a considerable length of time. Notwithstanding its brutal circumstances, the Sahara is home to various plant and creature species that have adjusted to the desert’s current circumstance. Vegetation fundamentally comprises of dry season safe bushes, grasses, and acacia trees, while desert springs support greater vegetation and even date palm forests. Creatures found in the Sahara incorporate camels, gazelles, desert foxes, fennec foxes, sand snakes, scorpions, and different bird species. The Sahara has been possessed by different roaming and semi-itinerant gatherings, like the Tuareg, Berber, and Bedouin clans. These gatherings have adjusted to the desert’s difficulties and have created novel societies revolved around camel grouping, exchanging, and desert garden cultivating. Numerous antiquated civilizations, including the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Romans, laid out shipping lanes and settlements along the edges of the Sahara. The Sahara Desert plays had a huge impact throughout the entire existence of human civilization, especially as a significant shipping lane interfacing North Africa to sub-Saharan Africa and then some. The antiquated Trans-Saharan shipping lanes worked with the trading of products, including gold, ivory, salt, and slaves. Today, the Sahara stays a significant district for the extraction of normal assets, like oil, gaseous petrol, and minerals. The Sahara is confronting different ecological difficulties, including desertification and environmental change. Desertification is the development of desert regions because of elements like deforestation, overgrazing, and unfortunate land the board, prompting the debasement of rich land and the formation of new deserts. Environmental change has exacerbated these issues, prompting more successive and serious dry seasons in the district. Endeavors to battle desertification and advance feasible land use are progressing, with drives to establish trees, lay out enemy of desertification ventures, and backing nearby networks in their endeavors to safeguard the delicate biological system.

4.Gobi Desert

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The Gobi Desert is an immense and bone-dry locale situated in northern China and southern Mongolia. It is quite possibly of the biggest desert on the planet, covering an area of around 500,000 square miles (1,295,000 square kilometers). The desert is famous for its outrageous temperatures, brutal circumstances, and one of a kind scenes. The Gobi Desert extends across a few regions in China, including Internal Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia, and Xinjiang, as well as parts of southern Mongolia. It is limited by the Altai Mountains toward the north and the Tibetan Level toward the southwest. The desert’s landscape is different and incorporates rough mountains, sand hills, rock fields, and salt pads. The Gobi Desert encounters a mainland environment portrayed by outrageous temperature vacillations. Summers can be singing sweltering, with temperatures surpassing 104°F (40°C), while winters can be sharply cold, with temperatures falling underneath freezing. The typical yearly precipitation in the Gobi Desert is extremely low, going from 2 to 10 inches (50 to 250 millimeters), making it a dry and unfriendly climate. Regardless of its cruel circumstances, the Gobi Desert upholds different plant and creature life. Vegetation in the desert is meager and incorporates dry season safe bushes, grasses, and solid desert plants. Normal plant species in the Gobi incorporate saxaul, camel thistle, and different types of grasses. The Gobi Desert is additionally home to a few exceptional and jeopardized creature species. These incorporate the Bactrian camel, which is all around adjusted to the desert’s outrageous circumstances with its capacity to store fat in its mound for food during significant stretches without water. Other eminent creature occupants incorporate the Gobi bear, snow panther, wild Bactrian camel, and different types of reptiles and birds.

5.Antarctic Desert

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The Antarctic Desert is the biggest desert on the planet, covering an area of roughly 14 million square kilometers (5.5 million square miles) in and around the Antarctic district. Notwithstanding its relationship with ice and snow, the Antarctic Desert is named a desert because of its low yearly precipitation and dry circumstances. The Antarctic Desert is situated on the mainland of Antarctica, which is arranged around the South Pole and encircled by the Southern Sea. It encounters outrageous cold temperatures consistently, with winter temperatures decreasing as low as – 80°C (- 112°F) and summer temperatures going from – 15°C (5°F) to – 30°C (- 22°F) close to the coast. Inland, temperatures can be significantly colder, and the area is many times slammed areas of strength for by and snowstorms. The scene of the Antarctic Desert is portrayed by ice sheets, glacial masses, chunks of ice, and ice racks. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are the two significant ice sheets, covering the greater part of the mainland’s expanse of land. These ice sheets can arrive at thicknesses of a few kilometers and contain around 90% of the world’s ice. The Antarctic Promontory, which expands toward the north from the central area, encounters milder temperatures contrasted with the remainder of the landmass. This district is additionally home to a portion of the mainland’s untamed life, including penguins, seals, and seabirds. The Antarctic Desert upholds an amazing assortment of natural life, particularly along its coasts and close by islands. Penguins, like the Ruler, Adélie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo, are among the most notable Antarctic creatures. They have adjusted to the outrageous circumstances and depend on the encompassing sea for food. Seals are likewise normal in the Antarctic, including Weddell, Ross, Panther, Crabeater, and Elephant seals. They utilize the ice and encompassing waters for rearing, resting, and hunting. Different seabird species, similar to the Meandering Gooney bird, Petrels, and Antarctic Terns, can be found settling on the waterfront bluffs and without ice regions. These birds have created brilliant flying and hunting abilities to make due in this unforgiving climate.

6.Thar Desert

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The Thar Desert, otherwise called the Incomparable Indian Desert, is a huge dry district situated in the northwestern piece of the Indian subcontinent. It ranges across parts of India and Pakistan, covering an area of roughly 200,000 square kilometers (77,000 square miles). Here are a few critical insights regarding the Thar Desert: The Thar Desert is essentially arranged in the Indian territory of Rajasthan, stretching out into the eastern part of Pakistan’s Sindh region. It is lined by the Aravalli Reach toward the southeast, the Rann of Kutch toward the south, the Indus Waterway plain toward the west, and the Punjab Plain toward the north. The Thar Desert encounters a super bone-dry environment, portrayed by burning warm summers and cold winters. Throughout the mid year months, temperatures can take off above 50°C (122°F), while winters can see temperatures decreasing to approach freezing around evening time. The scene of the Thar Desert highlights tremendous stretches of sandy fields, hills, rough outcrops, and salt pads. Sand hills are one of the unmistakable elements of this desert, with some of them ascending to great levels. The Thar Desert is home to an amazing assortment of plant and creature species, a large number of which have adjusted to the dry climate. Vegetation incorporates solid bushes, dry season safe trees, and desert grasses. Natural life in the locale incorporates different desert-adjusted species like the Indian gazelle (chinkara), desert fox, blackbuck, and a few types of reptiles. The Thar Desert draws in various vacationers looking to encounter the desert’s excellence and social extravagance. Famous objections incorporate the urban communities of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, where guests can investigate old fortifications, royal residences, and appreciate camel safaris across the sand rises. The Thar Desert is a phenomenal regular marvel, displaying the versatility of life in outrageous conditions. Its one of a kind mix of social legacy, different untamed life, and stunning scenes make it a huge and captivating district in the Indian subcontinent.

7.Mojave Desert

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The Mojave Desert is a huge bone-dry locale found fundamentally in the southwestern US. It extends across parts of California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, covering roughly 47,877 square miles (124,000 square kilometers). Named after the Mojave Local American clan, this desert is one of the four significant deserts in North America, alongside the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Extraordinary Bowl Deserts. The Mojave Desert is described by its assorted topography, including extensive sand rises, rough mountains, salt pads, and dry lake beds. Its scene is set apart by the Mojave Stream, which streams irregularly, and the Passing Valley, the most minimal and most blazing point in North America. The Mojave Desert encounters a sweltering desert environment with outrageous temperatures. Summers are singing, with daytime temperatures frequently surpassing 100°F (38°C) and at times coming to up to 120°F (49°C). Winters are milder however can in any case be cold, particularly at higher rises. Regardless of its parched circumstances, the Mojave Desert upholds an astonishing assortment of plant and creature life that has adjusted to its brutal climate. Normal plant species incorporate Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia), creosote hedges (Larrea tridentata), and different desert flora like the barrel cactus and thorny pear. Natural life in the Mojave Desert incorporates bighorn sheep, desert turtles, coyotes, pack foxes, diamondbacks, and a plenty of reptiles and bugs. The Mojave Desert has been occupied for millennia by different native clans, including the Mojave, Chemehuevi, and Serrano individuals. European investigation and settlement in the district started in the eighteenth and nineteenth hundreds of years, with Spanish teachers and trailblazers getting through the area. In the advanced time, a few towns and urban communities have been laid out, including Las Vegas, Nevada, and Palmdale, California. The desert additionally has various army installations and proving grounds because of its remote and secluded nature. The Mojave Desert draws in travelers and outside lovers with its novel scenes and sporting open doors. Famous objections incorporate Joshua Tree Public Park, popular for its extraordinary Joshua trees and rock developments, and Demise Valley Public Park, known for its outrageous temperatures and shocking salt pads. Different focal points incorporate the Mojave Public Protect, Red Stone Gorge Public Preservation Region, and the noteworthy Highway 66, which gets through the desert.

8.Great Victoria Desert

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The Incomparable Victoria Desert is a huge and dry locale situated in the southern piece of Australia. It is the biggest desert in Australia and perhaps of the most scantily populated put on The planet. Covering an area of around 348,750 square kilometers (around 134,650 square miles), the desert extends across the territories of Western Australia and South Australia.
The desert is arranged in the focal piece of Australia, principally between the Nullarbor Plain toward the south and the Gibson Desert toward the north. The scene of the Incomparable Victoria Desert is portrayed by sandy fields, sandhills, and little rough outcrops. It is a common desert territory with tremendous scopes of red sand and inadequate vegetation. The district encounters a brutal desert environment with sweltering, dry summers and generally gentle winters. Temperatures can take off above 40°C (104°F) during late spring days and drop essentially around evening time. Precipitation is scant and inconsistent, averaging around 200-250 millimeters (8-10 inches) every year, and is frequently erratic. Regardless of its bone-dry circumstances, the Incomparable Victoria Desert upholds a remarkable environment with different widely varied vegetation. Some normal plant species found in the desert incorporate spinifex grass, mulga trees, and different bushes. Creature life incorporates kangaroos, emus, perenties (huge screen reptiles), and various reptiles, bugs, and bird species. The desert has been home to different Native gatherings for millennia, and they have fostered a profound association with the land and its assets. These gatherings incorporate the Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, and Ngaanyatjarra people groups. The main European adventurers to experience the Incomparable Victoria Desert were Scottish voyager John McDouall Stuart and his group during the nineteenth hundred years. Nonetheless, because of its cruel circumstances and absence of assets, the region remained generally neglected and uninhabited by European pioneers. Lately, endeavors have been made to secure and monitor the special biodiversity of the Incomparable Victoria Desert. A few safeguarded regions and stores have been laid out, including the Incomparable Victoria Desert Nature Save and Mamungari Preservation Park.

9.Rub’Al Khali Desert

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Rub’Al Khali, otherwise called the Vacant Quarter, is the biggest constant sand desert on the planet, covering an area of roughly 650,000 square kilometers (250,966 square miles). It is arranged in the Bedouin Landmass, crossing across four nations: Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, and the Assembled Middle Easterner Emirates. The Rub’Al Khali is portrayed by enormous sand ridges that can arrive at levels of up to 250 meters (820 feet). The desert’s scene is overwhelmed by tremendous stretches of sand, scattered with salt pads, rock fields, and intermittent rough outcrops. The desert’s sand is basically made out of fine, wind-blown sand particles that make the notable sand rises. The desert encounters a parched environment with very high temperatures during the day and essentially colder temperatures around evening time. Summer daytime temperatures can take off above 50°C (122°F), making it quite possibly of the most blazing put on The planet. The district’s absence of overcast cover and moistness adds to the outrageous temperature changes among constantly. Given its unforgiving circumstances, the Rub’Al Khali is meagerly populated with plant and creature life. Notwithstanding, the desert upholds some tough desert vegetation, for example, the Middle Eastern gum tree (Acacia tortilis) and other dry spell safe bushes. Untamed life in the desert incorporates Bedouin oryx, gazelles, and different reptiles and bugs that have adjusted to the outrageous circumstances. By and large, the Rub’Al Khali was navigated by migrant Bedouin clans who depended on camels for transportation and endurance in the unforgiving climate. These clans had broad information on the desert’s landscape and water sources, empowering them to explore and support themselves in this ungracious district. The Rub’Al Khali has long caught the creative mind of swashbucklers, travelers, and scientists. Early European travelers like Bertram Thomas and Wilfred Thesiger wandered into the desert during the mid twentieth 100 years, reporting their excursions and the one of a kind encounters they experienced. The desert isn’t absent any and all assets. It has huge oil saves underneath its sands, making it a fundamental region for the oil business in the Middle Eastern Promontory. The extraction of these assets has been a fundamental driver of monetary advancement in the encompassing nations.

10.Arctic Desert

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The Cold Desert, otherwise called the Icy Tundra, is a huge and remarkable biome situated in the northernmost districts of the Earth, essentially inside the Icy Circle. It is a cold and brutal climate portrayed by low temperatures, short developing seasons, and frozen ground for the vast majority of the year. Notwithstanding these difficult circumstances, the Icy Desert is home to a different scope of plant and creature species that have adjusted to make due in this outrageous environment. The Icy Desert encounters long, chilly winters and short, cool summers. Normal temperatures can go from – 30°C (- 22°F) in winter to 10°C (50°F) in summer. The locale gets next to no precipitation, frequently as snow, and it is viewed as quite possibly of the driest put on The planet. Permafrost is a main trait of the Cold Tundra. It alludes to the for all time frozen ground that lies underneath the surface soil layer. This layer can be a few meters thick and forestalls the seepage of water, making wetlands and damp regions during the short summer defrost. The vegetation in the Icy Desert is adjusted to the virus conditions and short developing seasons. Normal plant species incorporate greeneries, lichens, grasses, sedges, and bantam bushes like Icy willow and heather. Trees are missing because of the unforgiving environment and frozen soil, keeping their underground roots from laying out.
In spite of its brutal climate, the Icy Desert upholds an assortment of natural life species. Famous creatures incorporate the polar bear, Cold fox, reindeer (caribou), musk bulls, frigid owl, Icy bunny, lemmings, and different bird species that relocate to the region throughout the mid year. Creatures in the Icy Desert have advanced various transformations to endure the outrageous circumstances. These transformations incorporate thick layers of fat or fur for protection, occasional movements, hibernation, and specific taking care of ways of behaving. Albeit scantily populated, a few native networks have lived in the Icy Tundra for millennia. These people group, like the Inuit, have created extraordinary lifestyles, depending on hunting, fishing, and customary information to flourish in this difficult climate. The Cold Desert assumes a critical part in the World’s environment framework. The intelligent properties of ice and snow assist with directing the planet’s temperature by reflecting sun powered radiation back into space, adding to the World’s energy balance.

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THE GREAT 10 LARGEST DESERTS IN THE WORLD ACCORDING TO THE AREA OF DESERTS

A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. Approximately one-fifth of the Earth’s surface is covered by deserts. A region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all. This is an area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of water, permanent frost, or absence of soil. This area of the ocean in which it is believed no marine life exists. Desert is unsettled area between Mississippi and rocky mountains thought to be unsuitable for human habitation. Experts have several ways of categorizing the different types of deserts, but most will agree on some version of the following four classifications: hot and dry, semiarid, coastal, and cold. Due to intense heat, rain is known to evaporate in hot and dry deserts before it can even reach the ground. Many semiarid deserts get so little rain because tall mountain ranges prevent precipitation from reaching these drier regions. These are the 10 largest deserts in the world by size.

1.Antarctic: 5,500,000 sq. miles

Antarctica is the driest continent. The Antarctic is located in the southern hemisphere and covered by around 7.1 million cubic miles of an ice sheet that is approximately 1.5 miles thick. With a humidity rating of 5% it is the driest region on the planet, and so, Antarctic is classified as a large barren cold desert. The name Antarctica is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ,meaning is “opposite to the Arctic”, “opposite to the north”. Very little snow or rain falls on the continent, but because it is so cold, the small amount of precipitation that does fall does not melt. 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice. The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was at Russia’s Vostok Station in Antarctica: -89.2°C (-128.6°F) on 21st July, 1983. About 70% of Earth’s fresh water is in the Antarctic ice cap. There are no countries in Antarctica; the continent is governed by an international treaty. There are no permanent residents. But up to 1,000 people may be wintering over at various research stations. It is the fifth-largest continent and nearly twice the size of Australia. At 0.00008 people per square km, it is by far the least densely populated continent. Antarctica is a good place to find meteorites, or rocks that fall from space to Earth. Scientists find more meteorites in Antarctica than any other place in the world. NASA sends teams to Antarctica to learn more about the planet Mars. Antarctica and Mars have a lot in common. Both places are cold. Both places are dry like a desert.

Antarctica and Arctic deserts are classified as cold deserts. Due to their positions at the northern and southern poles of our planet, they are also known as polar deserts. They are the largest deserts in the world. The former makes up the entire continent, while the latter stretches across numerous countries like Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. They are very dry, but not in the traditional sense. They are cold all year round with frigid winters. Instead of sand, the surrounding surface is covered in layers of ice and snow. The average temperature hovers around freezing, but can plummet to -50 degrees Celsius. During wet seasons, cold deserts can get up to eighteen inches of rain every year, but on average, they receive only six to ten. Scientists take turns going there to study the ice. Tourists visit Antarctica in the summer season. One tool that NASA uses is ICESat. That stands for the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite. Using ICESat, NASA can measure changes in the size of Antarctica’s ice sheets. ICESat also helps NASA to understand how polar ice may change and affect the rest of the planet. Melting ice sheets in Antarctica may change sea levels all over the world. Some experts even claim that certain areas in Antarctica have not seen rain in 14 million years. Few plants can survive such brutal conditions. Many of the animals that call these polar regions home have easily adapted to the cold, such as bears, penguins, and seals. About Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista.

2.Arctic: 5,000,000 sq. miles

Arctic covers the island groups of Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, Severny Island and Severnaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean, above 75 degrees north latitude. The Arctic is the second largest desert on the planet and is slightly smaller in size than the Antarctic. It is so cold that the snow that does fall doesn’t melt, so deep snow covers the land and ice. As long as there is some source of moisture and some way to lift or cool the air, it can snow even at incredibly cold temperatures. The top part of the Arctic region, known as the Arctic Circle, receives minimal precipitation and is classified as desert land. The southern region of the Arctic, also known as Tundra, has greater precipitation and therefore, supports a thriving ecosystem. A large part of the Arctic is sea ice. The region is covered with glaciers, snow, and bare rock in a harshly cold environment. It has an area of 161,400 square kilometres (62,300 sq mi). The ecoregion stretches 2,000 km west-to-east, and 1,000 km north-to-south, across the Arctic Ocean north of Norway and Russia. Arctic, northernmost region of the Earth, centred on the North Pole and characterized by distinctively polar conditions of climate, plant and animal life, and other physical features. The term is derived from the Greek arktos (“bear”), referring to the northern constellation of the Bear. It has sometimes been used to designate the area within the Arctic Circle—a mathematical line that is drawn at latitude 66°30′ N, marking the southern limit of the zone in which there is at least one annual period of 24 hours during which the sun does not set and one during which it does not rise. This line, however, is without value as a geographic boundary, since it is not keyed to the nature of the terrain.

The Arctic Desert refers to a number of islands north of 75 degrees north latitude. This includes northern Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Islands and Severnaya Zemlya. Mapped ecoregion boundaries correspond to the arctic desert zone in Kurnaev’s forest map of the USSR. However, northern sections of the Taimyr Peninsula, Novosibirsk Islands and Wrangel Island were excluded from this region as their lower latitudes permit a wider range and higher abundance of species. International interest in the Arctic and subarctic regions has steadily increased during the 20th century, particularly since World War II. Three major factors are involved: the advantages of the North Pole route as a shortcut between important centres of population, the growing realization of economic potentialities such as mineral like petroleum and forest resources and grazing areas, and the importance of the regions in the study of global meteorology. The Arctic lands have developed geologically around four nuclei of ancient crystalline rocks. The largest of these, the Canadian Shield, underlies all the Canadian Arctic except for part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands. It is separated by Baffin Bay from a similar shield area that underlies most of Greenland. The Arctic desert is home to a number of highly adapted species, which can cope with the extreme conditions or, as some long-distant migratory bird species come there only for a short summer season.

3.Sahara: 3,320,000 sq. miles

The Sahara is a desert on the African continent. Around 25% of the land is covered by sand with the total region comprising a mix of hilly areas and shallow land. The Sahara is the third largest desert and is part of a high-temperature zone, unlike the colder regions of Arctic and Antarctic. The total area varies but mostly stretches approximately 3,000 miles across and around 1,100 miles north to south. The northern areas of the Sahara experiences mostly dry subtropical temperatures while the southern areas remain mostly dry tropical. It is the largest hot desert in the world. The name ‘Sahara’ is derived from the Arabic word for “desert”. The population of the Sahara is just two million. For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 20,000 year cycle caused by the precession of the Earth’s axis as it rotates around the Sun, which changes the location of the North African Monsoon. The area is next expected to become green in about 15,000 years . The Sahara is bordered in the west by the Atlantic Ocean, in the north by the Atlas Mountains and Mediterranean Sea, in the east by the Red Sea, and in the south by the Sahel—a semiarid region that forms a transitional zone between the Sahara to the north and savannas to the south. The enormous desert spans 11 countries: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia. Other topographical features include mountains, plateaus, sand- and gravel-covered plains, salt flats, basins and depressions. Mount Koussi, an extinct volcano in Chad, is the highest point in the Sahara at 11,204 feet (3,415 m), and the Qattara Depression in Egypt is the Saraha’s deepest point, at 436 feet (133 m) below sea level. The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi (3,415m), a volcano located in Tibesti Mountains, Chad. In east-central Algeria lies the Isaouane-n-Tifernine Sand Sea, with sand dunes as high as 450m – some of the tallest in the world. The largest dunes in Morocco are the Erg Chigaga – with some dunes reaching a massive 300m.
Camels, also known as the “ships of the desert,” are well-adapted for the hot, arid environment, according to the San Diego Zoo. The humps on a camel’s back store fat, which can be used for energy and hydration in between meals. Camels store energy so efficiently that they can go more than a week without water and several months without food. Other residents of the Sahara include a variety of gazelles, addax, cheetahs, caracals, desert foxes and wild dogs, according to the Sahara Conservation Fund. Many reptile species also thrive in the desert environment, including several species of snakes, lizards, and even crocodiles in places where there is enough water. Plant species in the Sahara have adapted to the arid conditions, with roots that reach deep underground to find buried water sources and leaves that are shaped into spines that minimize moisture loss. The most arid parts of the desert are completely void of plant life, but oasis areas, such as the Nile Valley, support a large variety of plants, including olive trees, date palms and various shrubs and grasses. One proposal for mitigating the effects of climate change is to install large-scale wind and solar farms in the Sahara. The farms would provide clean energy and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, and may also promote increased precipitation in the vicinity. Several activities you can do in the Sahara such as quad biking, stargazing, sand surfing, camping or trekking. Our Sahara Desert Trek is a fantastic adventure, taking us on a 4 day trek to the top of the Chegaga Dunes.
Although water is scarce across the entire region, the Sahara contains two permanent rivers (the Nile and the Niger), at least 20 seasonal lakes and huge aquifers, which are the primary sources of water. Despite the harsh, arid conditions of the desert, several plants and animals call the region home. There are approximately 500 species of plants, 70 known mammalian species, 90 avian species and 100 reptilian species that live in the Sahara, plus several species of spiders, scorpions and other small arthropods, according to World Wildlife Fund. Camels are one of the most iconic animals of the Sahara. The large mammals are native to North America and eventually made their way across the Bering Isthmus between 3 and 5 million years ago, according to a study in the Research Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Management in 2015. Camels were domesticated about 3,000 years ago on the Southeast Arabian Peninsula, to be used for transportation in the desert.The Sahara desert has a variety of land features, but is most famous for the sand dune fields that are often depicted in movies. The dunes can reach almost 600 feet (183 meters) high but they cover only about 15 percent of the entire desert. The average annual temperature is 30°C, whilst the hottest temperature ever recorded was 58°C. The area receives little rainfall, in fact, half of the Sahara Desert receives less than 1 inch of rain every year.

4.Arabian Desert: 900,000 sq. miles

The Arabian Desert appears as a vast expanse of light sand-coloured terrain with an occasional indistinct line of escarpments or mountain ranges, black lava flows, or reddish systems of desert dunes stretching to the horizon. Arabian Desert is the largest desert area on the continent—covering an area of about 900,000 square miles (2,300,000 square km)—and the second largest on Earth, surpassed in size only by the Sahara, in northern Africa. The Arabian desert is part of the Arabian Peninsula that extends across the 220 latitude and 120 to 340 north. Several countries that share the desert land include; Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and the UAE. Large parts of the desert experiences extremely high temperatures, reaching 1300 F during peak summer season. Arabian Desert, great desert region of extreme southwestern Asia that occupies almost the entire Arabian Peninsula. Mountainous highlands rise in the northwestern portion of the Hejaz region, in the Asir region, in Yemen, and in Oman. Lesser ranges have been uncovered by erosion in the interior. Eighteen volcanic fields are scattered through the west, mainly in Hejaz, several of them more than 10,000 square miles (25,000 square km) in area.

The Arabian Desert is bordered to the north by the Syrian Desert, to the northeast and east by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, to the southeast and south by the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and to the west by the Red Sea. A large part of the Arabian Desert lies within the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Yemen, on the coast of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, borders the desert to the southwest. Oman, bulging out into the Gulf of Oman, lies at the eastern edge of the desert. The sheikhdoms of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to the west stretch along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf at the desert’s northeastern limit. The emirate of Kuwait abuts the northern Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. In the northwest the desert extends into Jordan.
Vegetation at first seems nonexistent, but the discerning eye can find sparse patches of growth on the surface, or bits of green where shrubs strive to survive. There is almost always a breeze, which changes seasonally to winds of gale force. The Sun and Moon are bright in clear skies, although dust and humidity may lower visibility. The Arabian Desert consists of two major regions. The first, the ancient Arabian platform, is in the west. It is composed mainly of Precambrian gneiss and was assembled roughly 900 to 541 million years ago. The second region, in the east, comprises sedimentary rock layers deposited over the past 541 million years on continental shelves and within marine basins along the margins of the Arabian platform. Vast amounts of petroleum formed between those sedimentary rock layers, making the Arabian Desert the richest petroleum-producing region in the world. Roughly 33 million years ago, early in the Oligocene Epoch, Arabia began to split away from Africa. That was the onset of a period of rifting that was caused by upwelling from Earth’s mantle beneath the regions now lying on either side of the Red Sea.

5.Gobi Desert: 500,000 sq. miles

Located in Central Asia, the Gobi desert is shared by Mongolia and China. Unlike the Sahara and Arabian deserts, Gobi is mostly made up of hard rock and not sand. The desert is a result of the rain shadow from the tall Himalayan Mountains which prevents precipitation carrying winds from reaching the Gobi. Maximum temperature can touch a high of 1130 F during peak summer season while it can dip to as low as -400 F is some parts. The Gobi Desert is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia. The Gobi is a rain shadow desert, formed by the Tibetan Plateau blocking precipitation from the Indian Ocean reaching the Gobi territory. The Gobi is overall a cold desert, with frost and occasionally snow occurring on its dunes. Besides being quite far north, it is also located on a plateau roughly 910–1,520 m (2,990–4,990 ft) above sea level, which contributes to its low temperatures. An average of approximately 194 mm (7.6 in) of rain falls annually in the Gobi. Additional moisture reaches parts of the Gobi in winter as snow is blown by the wind from the Siberian Steppes.

Large copper deposits are being mined by Rio Tinto Group. The mine was and remains controversial. There was significant opposition in Mongolia’s parliament to the terms under which the mine will proceed, and some are calling for the terms to be renegotiated. The Gobi name come from Mongolian gobi, meaning “waterless place. Gobi is not sandy desert but bare rock. It is possible to drive over this surface by car for long distances in any direction: northward toward the Altai and Hangayn mountain ranges, eastward toward the Da Hinggan Range, or southward toward the Bei Mountains and Huang He valley. The Gobi consists of the Gaxun, Junggar (Dzungarian), and Trans-Altai Gobi in the west, the Eastern, or Mongolian, Gobi in the centre and east, and the Alxa Plateau (Ala Shan Desert) in the south. The Eastern Gobi is similar to the western regions, with elevations varying from 2,300 to 5,000 feet (700 to 1,500 metres), but it receives somewhat more precipitation—up to 8 inches (200 mm) per year—though it lacks significant rivers. The Gobi’s plains consist of chalk and other sedimentary rocks that are chiefly Cenozoic in age (i.e., up to about 66 million years old), though some of the low, isolated hills are older. The terrain contains small masses of shifting sands.

6.Kalahari Desert: 360,000 sq. miles

This subtropical desert is located in the southern part of the African continent and shared between Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Angola. One of the most interesting Kalahari Desert facts is that it is not a desert in the strictest sense of the word, as it receives too much rainfall – between 5 and 10 inches annually. However any rain filters rapidly through the vast expanses of sand, leaving nothing on the surface, turning the Kalahari into the “thirstland”. A more accurate definition of a desert is a region in which “the evaporation rate is twice as great as the precipitation”. This is true for the southwestern half of the Kalahari. The northeastern portion, however, receives much more rainfall and, climatically, cannot qualify as a desert; and yet, it is totally lacking in surface water. In the southwest it merges with the Namib, the coastal desert of Namibia. Kalahari is derived from the Tswana word Kgala, meaning “the great thirst”, or Kgalagadi, meaning “a waterless place”; The Kalahari has vast areas covered by red sand without any permanent surface water. The Kalahari’s longest north–south extent is roughly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres), and its greatest east–west distance is about 600 miles; its area has been estimated at some 360,000 square miles (930,000 square kilometres). Extended dunes cover most of the north and northwestern parts of the Kalahari. Numerous pans exist within the Kalahari, including the Groot-vloer Pan and Verneukpan where evidence of a wetter climate exists in the form of former contouring for capturing of water. North and east, approximately where the dry forests, savannahs and salt lakes prevail, the climate is sub-humid rather than semi-arid. South and west, where the vegetation is predominantly xeric savanna or even a semi-desert, the climate is “Kalaharian” semi-arid. During peak summer, the temperature can reach 1150 F during the day and fall to 750 F at night. Winter temperatures drop to 100 F. Bedrock is exposed only in the low but vertical-walled hills, called kopjes, that rarely but conspicuously rise above the general surface. Aside from the kopjes, three surfaces characterize virtually all of the Kalahari: sand sheets, longitudinal dunes, and vleis (pans).
Due to its low aridity, the Kalahari supports a variety of flora. The native flora includes acacia trees and many other herbs and grasses. The kiwano fruit, also known as the horned melon, melano, African horned cucumber, jelly melon, or hedged gourd, is endemic to a region in the Kalahari Desert. The Kalahari is home to many migratory birds and animals. Previously havens for wild animals from elephants to giraffes, and for predators such as lions and cheetahs, the riverbeds are now mostly grazing spots, though leopards and cheetahs can still be found. The area is now heavily grazed and cattle fences restrict the movement of wildlife. Among deserts of the Southern Hemisphere, the Kalahari most closely resembles some Australian deserts in its latitude and its mode of formation. The temperatures in the Kalahari Desert are extreme, with summers being very hot while winter temperatures can go below zero degrees Celsius at night. This is a result of the Kalahari’s relatively high altitude and predominantly clear, dry air. Arid-adapted game includes springbok, gemsbok, wildebeest, kudu, steenbok and duiker. The Kalahari is home to desert specialties such as meerkat, bat-eared foxes, cape fox and brown hyena. One of the more unexpected Kalahari Desert facts is that all three African big cats can be found here –cheetah, leopard and the famous black-maned Kalahari lions. The Kalahari is the southernmost desert in Africa. It is the sixth biggest desert by area on Earth and the second biggest in Africa after the Sahara.

7.Great Victoria Desert: 220,000 sq. miles

The largest desert on the Australian continent is located in the southwestern region and extends over 700 miles across. The desert is mostly arid and made up of rocky terrain and undulating dunes. During the summer season, temperatures can exceed 1050 F, and in winters dip to as low as 680 F. The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely-populated desert ecoregion and interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. The Great Victoria consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles and salt lakes. The area of the Great Victoria Desert is shared roughly equally by the states of South and Western Australia. It is north of the Nullarbor Plain and south of the Musgrave Ranges. The climate of the GVD is arid, with variable and unpredictable rainfall that can fall in either summer or winter. The median annual rainfall (1890–2005) averaged across the GVD is 162 mm. Its pristine, arid wilderness includes red sand dunes, stony plains and dry salt lakes. There is no permanent surface water, with scarce rock holes, claypans and soaks holding water only during wet periods. Within this landscape there are Aboriginal communities at Oak Valley, Watarru and Walalkara. 15 bird species with a conservation rating including the princess parrot, malleefowl and scarlet chested parrot. The Great Victoria Desert can be very dry and sandy. However, plants and animals still live there. The plants are adapted to the dry, arid climate, otherwise they would not be able to survive. Wallabies, bandy snakes, lizards. kangaroos . and many birds live in the Great Victoria Desert. These animals have also adapted to survive in extreme heat and extreme cold. It was penetrated in 1875 by a party led by the explorer Ernest Giles, who named it the Great Victoria Desert. Supports many vegetation types, including eucalypt open woodlands, mulga woodlands, acacia shrublands, casuarina and mallee shrublands and woodlands, and chenopod and samphire shrublands. Of note are the sparse woodlands of stately marble gums.

8.Patagonia Desert: 200,000 sq. miles

Located in South America between the Andes and the Atlantic Ocean, the Patagonia desert is part of Argentina and Chile. A cold winter desert, temperatures here average 370 F. The Patagonian Desert is the largest of the 40° parallel and is a large cold winter desert, where the temperature rarely exceeds 12 °C and averages just 3 °C. The region experiences about seven months of winter and five months of summer. Frost is not uncommon in the desert but, due to the very dry condition year round, snow is rare. It is bounded, approximately, by the Patagonian Andes to the west, the Colorado River to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Strait of Magellan to the south; the region south of the strait—Tierra del Fuego, which is divided between Argentina and Chile—also is often included in Patagonia. Desert and semidesert cover the Patagonian tableland that extends from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. The general aspect of this tableland is one of vast steppelike plains, rising in terrace fashion from high coastal cliffs to the foot of the Andes; but the true aspect of the plains is by no means as simple as such a general description would imply. The land along the Negro River rises in a series of fairly level terraces from about 300 feet (90 metres) at the coast to about 1,300 feet at the junction of the Limay and Neuquen rivers and 3,000 feet at the base of the Andes. South of the Negro River, the plains are much more irregular. Volcanic eruptions occurred in this area until fairly recent times, and basaltic sheets covered the tableland east of Lakes Buenos Aires and Pueyrredon.

  1. Syrian Desert: 200,000 sq. miles

Syrian Desert located in West Asia, the desert forms part of Syria, Iraq, and Jordan. The Syrian desert is about the same size as Patagonia but is a subtropical desert which is mostly dry. The Syrian Desert also known as the Syrian steppe, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badia, is a region of desert, semi-desert and steppe. The land is open, rocky or gravelly desert pavement, cut with occasional wadis. The desert is bounded by the Orontes Valley and the volcanic field of Harrat al-Shamah to the west, and by the Euphrates to the east. In the north, the desert gives way to the more fertile areas and to the south it runs into the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. Several parts of the Syrian Desert have been referred to separately such as the Palmyrene desert around Palmyra, and the Homs desert. The eastern section of the Syrian Desert, that within borders of Iraq, can be referred to as the Western Desert.

The Syrian desert, in turn, is divided into two parts, which differ in their surface structure. The first, a plateau in the southwest, is more elevated than the other part and also much drier. The part to the northeast starts at lower elevation in the south—2,208 feet (673 m)—and ends at 623 feet (190 m) in the north. This part is dry and has dry river channels (wadis) exposed to flooding. These wadis range in length from 93 to 186 miles (150–300 km) and in width from 0.3 to 0.6 miles (0.5 to 1 km). Annual precipitation in the Syrian desert does not exceed 5.85 inches (150 mm). Receiving on the average less than 5 inches (125 mm) of rainfall annually and largely covered by lava flows, it formed a nearly impenetrable barrier between the populated areas of the Levant and Mesopotamia until modern times ; several major motor routes and oil pipelines now bisect it. In the late 1970s, there was much oil exploration.

10.Great Basin Desert: 190,000 sq. miles

The Great Basin Desert is located in the United States and forms part of the Greater North American Desert. It’s mountain peaks (33) reaches 10,000 feet. Since large parts are mountainous, the temperatures vary based on the elevation. It covers an arid expanse of about 190,000 square miles (492,000 square km) and is bordered by the Sierra Nevada range on the west, the Wasatch Mountains on the east, the Columbia Plateau on the north, and the Mojave Desert on the south. Minerals have proved to be the greatest resource of the Great Basin. Much of the nation’s gold, magnesite, barite, and mercury are produced in Nevada, which is also among the leading producers of lithium, silver, diatomite, and gemstones. Utah is the leading producer of beryllium ore and is among the leading producers of gold, silver, copper, iron ore, and molybdenum. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, and the Central Basin and Range ecoregion defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and United States Geological Survey. The desert is one of the four biologically defined deserts in North America, in addition to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts. There are more than 33 peaks within the desert with summits higher than 9,800 feet (3,000 m), but valleys in the region are also high, most with elevations above 3,900 feet (1,200 m). Different locations in the desert have different amounts of precipitation, depending on the strength of these rain shadows. The Great Basin Desert is the only “cold” desert in the country, where most precipitation falls in the form of snow. A desert is defined as a region that receives less than 10 inches (25cm) of precipitation per year.
The mountain ranges of the Great Basin have been likened, in an old survey report, to a group of caterpillars all crawling irregularly northward. The ranges are from 60 to 120 miles (95 to 190 km) long and 3 to 15 miles (5 to 24 km) wide. The valleys are usually somewhat wider than the ranges and are mostly deserts, with floors 1,000 to 6,000 feet (300 to 1,800 metres) above sea level. The annual rainfall of 6 to 12 inches (150 to 300 mm) in the basin supports little more than sparse desert or semidesert vegetation. In many places volcanic rocks that formed about 30 million years ago have been cut and displaced by the block faults. There are historical records of earthquakes and constant contemporary micro-earthquakes, indicating that faulting has continued to the present day. The valley floors have deep soils resulting from thousands of years of mountain erosion. These valleys receive little rainfall; most of precipitation occurs as winter snow. The combination of hot, dry summers and cold winters results in a characteristic vegetation dominated by aromatic, perennial shrubs such as various forms of sagebrush . This vegetation type is dominated by one species and is known as the Great Basin Sagebrush Zone. In the wetter, more northerly parts there is an increasing proportion of grasses, giving rise to a vegetation type termed Sagebrush Steppe. In other, scattered regions of this desert, where the soil particles are very fine, there are permanent lakes or temporary lakes. These areas and the surrounding lands can have a high salt concentration caused by the evaporation of water. Such areas are dominated by various types of saltbush giving a vegetation type known as Salt-Desert Shrub.

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