NATURE
APRIL 12, 2023
Dry World : The Five Largest Deserts
Here are the dry worlds : the five largest deserts on Earth that surround us with their own unique life support system.
In geographical terms, a desert or desert is an area that receives little rainfall – less than 250 mm per year. Deserts are thought to have little capacity to support life. When compared to wetter areas this may be true, although on closer inspection deserts often have life that is usually hidden (especially during the day) to retain body fluids.
The ambient temperature is extreme. During the day it can reach 60ºC and at night it drops drastically to 0ºC. Approximately one third of the earth’s territory is in the form of desert.
The process of desert formation begins with the evaporation of water in the oceans and land. Evaporation by sunlight produces warm air with high humidity levels. Warm air rises into the atmosphere, then is replaced by cooler air.
Not infrequently, desert sand comes from hundreds of kilometers away. Some desert sand also comes from rivers or streams in the past, when the area was not yet a desert. When the area becomes arid, there is no vegetation or water to hold the soil.
The desert consists mostly of rocky surfaces. Sand dunes called ergs and rocky faces are another part of the desert. Broadly speaking, the desert is divided into four types; cold deserts, coastal deserts, hot and dry deserts, and semi-arid or semi-arid deserts.
Deserts are found in North Africa (Sahara Desert), North America (Great Basin), and Australia (Gibson Desert).
Biotic environment commonly found in the desert :
Flora: Plants that can adapt to dry environments (xerophytes) such as cacti, date palms, and olives.
Fauna: Large animals capable of storing water such as camels, while small animals are only active in the morning and at night where during the day they hide in holes such as snakes, rats, lizards and insects.
Here are the 5 largest deserts in the world :
1. Sahara
The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world. This is because the area reaches 9,100,000 square kilometers.
The Sahara Desert stretches across various countries, such as Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Tunisia and several other countries. Sahara is so big that even a third of the African Continent is the Sahara Desert.
Although water is scarce throughout its territory, the Sahara Desert has two permanent rivers, the Nile and Niger.
In the Sahara Desert, there are about 500 species of plants, 700 species of mammals, 90 species of birds and 100 species of reptiles that live in the Sahara.
2. Arabian
The Arabian Desert is also called the Desert of the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabian Desert occupies the second position as the largest desert in the world.
This desert is equivalent to a quarter of the Sahara Desert, which reaches 2,330,000 square kilometers.
This desert crosses several countries, namely Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, Oman, and Kuwait.
The temperature in the Arabian Desert is known to be around 40-50 degrees Celsius in summer and has cold temperatures of 5-15 degrees Celsius.
3. Gobi
This desert which covers 1,295,000 square kilometers is in China and southern Mongolia.
This desert is known to be bordered by the Altai Mountains, the Tibetan plateau, and the plains of North China.
Although arid, the Gobi Desert has very popular and crowded tourist attractions, such as the Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park.
4. Kalahari
Another largest desert this one is also on the continent of Africa, to be precise in the south.
For information, the Kalahari Desert stretches across several countries, such as the countries of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
This desert also has a fairly large area, which reaches 900,000 kilometers and is a semi-desert. Rainfall in the Kalahari Desert is said to reach 3-7 inches per year.
5. Patagonia
The Patagonia Desert is the largest desert in the Americas with an area of around 673,000 square kilometers.
The Patagonia Desert is known to be in the territory of Argentina and Chile, the southern part of America.
There are only two seasons in this desert, namely summer which lasts for five months and winter for seven months. When in winter, the temperature here averages 3 degrees Celsius and never goes above 12 degrees Celsius.
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