DESERT

DESERT

A waterless, desolate area of land with little or no vegetation, typically one covered with sand.
Deserts are the driest places on Earth they get fewer than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain a year. Some deserts may get a lot of rain all at once. Then it might not rain again for months or even years. Approximately 1/3 of Earth's land surface is a desert.



Type of desert

There are four types of deserts:

1. Subtropical Desert

subtropical deserts are hot and dry year-round.
Eg :- Saharan and Arabian deserts

2. Costal Desert

coastal deserts have cool winters and warm summers.
Eg :- Namib Desert and the Atacama Desert

3. Cold winter Desert

 cold winter deserts have long, dry summers and low  rainfall in the winter.
Eg :- Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia

4. Polar Desert

polar deserts are cold year-round.
Eg :- Arctic and the Antarctic



SUBTROPICAL DESERT

A subtropical desert is a type of ecosystem, or biome, that is characterized by high temperatures, very low precipitation and warm soils. Plant species such as grass, shrubs and succulents can be found there. Many animals, such as camels, tortoises, birds, foxes, rodents and lizards, also live in subtropical deserts.

COSTAL DESERT

A coastal desert, the Atacama of South America, is the Earth's driest desert. In the Atacama, measurable rainfall--1 millimeter or more of rain--may occur as infrequently as once every 5-20 years. Crescent-shaped dunes are common in coastal deserts such as the Namib, Africa, with prevailing onshore winds.

COLD WINTER DESERT

Cold deserts have hot summers but extremely cold winters. These deserts are found in high, flat areas, called plateaus, or mountainous areas in temperate regions of the world. Temperate regions lie between the polar regions and the tropics. Like other types of desert, cold deserts get very little rain or snow.

POLAR DESERT

Polar deserts are the regions of the Earth that fall under an ice cap climate. Despite rainfall totals low enough to normally classify as a desert, polar deserts are distinguished from true deserts by low annual temperatures and evapotranspiration. Most polar deserts are covered in ice sheets, ice fields, or ice caps. Ice-free areas have no vegetation whatsoever.

Polar deserts are one of two polar biomes: polar deserts and Arctic tundra. They are called polar deserts because of their flat environment. These biomes are located at the poles of the earth, specifically, the Arctic, northernmost North America, Europe, Asia and Antarctica. Polar deserts are located in the Arctic and Antarctic. Unlike the tundra that can support plant and animal life in the summer, polar deserts are barren with permanent layers of ice. However, there is evidence of life in this seemingly inhospitable environment. The thick ice contains sediments of organic and inorganic substances which create a habitable environment for microbial organisms. These organisms are closely related to cyanobacteria which have a variety of functions, particularly, fixing carbon dioxide from the melting water.



Rank, Name, Type , Area (approximately km²), Area (approximately sq mi), Location

1. Antarctica, Polar, 14,000,000 , 5,500,000 , Antarctica

2. Arctic, Polar,  13,985,000 , 5,400,000 , Arctic  (Alaska, Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden)

3. Sahara, Subtropical, 9,000,000+ , 3,300,000+ , North Africa  (Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan  and Tunisia)

4. Australian Desert, Subtropical, 2,700,000 , 1,000,000 , Australia

5. Arabian Desert, Subtropical, 2,330,000 , 900,000 , Western Asia  (Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen)

6. Gobi Desert, Cold Winter, 1,295,000 , 500,000 , Central Asia (China and Mongolia)

7. Kalahari Desert, Subtropical,  900,000+ , 360,000 , Southern Africa  (Angola, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa)

8. Patagonian Desert, Cold Winter, 620,000 , 200,000 , South America  (Argentina  and Chile)

9. Syrian Desert, Subtropical, 520,000+ , 200,000 , Western Asia  (Iraq, Jordan, and Syria)

10. Great Basin, Cold Winter, 492,000+ , 190,000 , United States

11. Chihuahuan Desert, Subtropical, 450,000+ , 175,000 , North America  (Mexico and the United States)

12. Karakum Desert, Cold Winter, 350,000+ , 135,000 , Turkmenistan

13. Colorado Plateau, Cold Winter, 337,000+ , 130,000 , United States

14. Sonoran Desert, Subtropical, 310,000+ , 120,000 , North America  (Mexico and the United States)

15. Kyzylkum Desert, Cold Winter, 300,000+ , 115,000 , Central Asia  (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan  and Uzbekistan)

16. Taklamakan Desert, Cold Winter, 270,000 , 105,000 , China

17. Thar Desert , Subtropical, 200,000+ , 77,000 , South Asia  (India and Pakistan)

18. Dasht-e Margo, Subtropical, 150,000 , 58,000 , Afghanistan

19. Registan Desert, Subtropical, 146,000 , 56,400 , Afghanistan

20. Atacama Desert, Mild Coastal, 140,000+ , 54,000 , South America  (Chile and Peru)

21. Mojave Desert, Subtropical, 124,000+ , 48,000 , United States

22. Columbia Basin, Cold Winter, 83,100+ , 32,100 , United States

23. Namib Desert, Coastal, 81,000+ , 31,000 , Southern Africa  (Angola and Namibia)

24. Dasht-e Kavir, Subtropical, 77,000+ , 30,000 , Iran

25. Dasht-e Loot, Subtropical, 52,000+ , 20,100 , Iran